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THE SAN ANTONIO PUBLIC 
SCHOOL SYSTEM 

A SURVEY 

CONDUCTED BY J. F. BOBBITT 
OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

JANUARY. 1915 



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AUTHORIZED BY RESOLUTION OF 

SAN ANTONIO SCHOOL BOARD 

PASSED DECEMBER 16, 1914 



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PUBLISHED BY 

THE SAN ANTONIO SCHOOL BOARD 

SAN ANTONIO. TEXAS. MAY. 1915 



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THE SAN ANTONIO PUBLIC 
SCHOOL SYSTEM 

A SURVEY 

CONDUCTED BY J. F. BOBBITT 
OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

JANUARY, 1915 




AUTHORIZED BY RESOLUTION OF 

SAN ANTONIO SCHOOL BOARD 

PASSED DECEMBER 16, 1914 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE SAN ANTONIO SCHOOL BOARD 

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, MAY. 1915 

G. F SIGMUND PRESS. SAN ANTONIO. TEXAS 



D. ol B- 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Ill 

CHAPTERS AND MAIN DIVISIONS 

I. PREFATORY STATEMENT 1 

II. THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 7 

The Place of Scholastic Education 10 

III. EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 16 

The Factors of Vocational Efficiency 21 

Vocational Training in San Antonio 26 

Commercial and Clerical Training 28 

Training for Household Occupations 34 

Education for Mechanical Occupations 42 

Gardening, Agriculture, Etc 50 

IV. EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP.. 58 

V. EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 71 

VI. EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS 91 

VII. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING... 99 

Reading 99 

Spelling 103 

Vocabulary and Pronunciation 112 

Handwriting 113 

Grammar, Language, Composition... 127 

VIII. THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 136 

Geography 136 

History 141 

Mathematics 147 

Science 153 

Drawing in the Elementary Schools 157 

Latin 158 

Spanish 159 

German 165 

IX. GENERAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 167 

Division of Responsibilities 168 

Educational Science as it Applies to San Antonio 176 

The Superintendent 179 

The Assistant Superintendent ......: 181 

The Building Principal 182 

The High School Principal 183 

i 



11 

Supervisors of Special Subjects 184 

Teachers 185 

The Business Agenl 186 

Superintended of Buildings and Grounds 187 

Janitors 188 

The Medical Department 189 

X. THE s'l QDENT POPULATION 190 

The School Census 190 

Retardation 194 

Present Grade Distribution of Pupils 199 

XI. ELEMENTARY TEACHERS... 201 

Amount of Training of Elementary Teachers 201 

Experience of Teachers 205 

Tenure of Tone hers 206 

The Training School 207 

Appointment of Outside Teachers 209 

Substitute Teachers... 210 

Training Teachers During Service 211 

XII. '±±1E HIGH SCHOOL 212 

Cost of Instruction by Subjects 213-15 

Time Devoted to Each Subject 214 

Average Size of Classes 216 

Average Hours Taught Per Week Per Teacher 216 

Training of the Teachers— Supervision 218 

The Library 219 

High School Building Accommodations 

XIII. BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 224 

Building Thins. 

1 1 eating and Ventilating 234 

Lighting '. 236 

Cloak Ueoms aiol Wardrobes. 

Furniture ami Equipment 241 

The Buildings as an Educational [nfluence and Oppor- 
tunity 

XIV. FINANCE 246 

< 'osi of Janitor Sen Lee. 247 

Cost of Supplies lor Instruction 248 

Cosl of Buildings per Class-room ....249 

(os* of OperatioD and Maintenance 251 

Cosl of High Schools 252 

Cosl of Elementary Education 253 

Property Tax Per Capita for All Purposes 254 

Total City Debl Per Capita 256 



TABLES AND CHARTS 

PUPILS 

No. Page 

1. Ao-es and nationalities of children as shown by last school census 7 

7. Age-progress situation in the schools of San Antonio 195 

8. Progress through the grades — relative standing of the respective 

elementary schools of San Antonio '. 197 

9. Present grade distribution of pupils in San Antonio... 200 

1. Spelling — ahilitv by grades in San Antonio as compared with 

about 50 Illinois cities. 105 

2. Handwriting — average quality of in 33 American cities 115 

4. ITandwritino' — onality of in San Antonio as compared with 32 

American cities 119 

6. Handwriting — quality of in different ward schools of San An- 

tonio (relative standing) 121 

3. Handwriting — speed of in 33 American cities 117 

5. Handwriting — speed of in San Antonio as compared with 33 

American cities.. _ 119 

7. Handwriting — speed of in the various buildings in San Antonio 

(relative rank) 123 

10. Retardation — relative standing of the respective schools in San 

Antonio 198 

Costs per pupil, etc. (See financial.) 

TEACHERS 

10. Training of — San Antonio as compared with 22 smaller cities. ...202 

11. Training of — relative standing of the respective schools in San 

Antonio ....204 

12. Experience of— San Antonio as compared with 27 cities 205 

13. Tenure of — San xAntonio as compared with other cities 206 

14. Salaries of — San Antonio as compared with other cities 207 

High school teachers. (See high school.) * 

HIGH SCHOOL 

21. Cost of high school education — San Antonio as compared with 

certain cities 252 

A. Cost of instruction — the portion of each $1000 expended for 

each subject.... :::: 213 

C. Cost of instruction — cost per 1000 student-hours for each sub- 

ject taught 215 

B. Time allowed per subject — distribution of each 1000 student- 

hours over the various subjects 214 

D. Average size of classes and average teaching time for each full- 

time teacher 216 

E. Training of teachers — San Antonio as compared with other 

cities - 218 

iii 



IV 

FINANCIAL 

5. Expenditures — per capita for street maintenance 62 

6. Expenditures — per pupil for promotion of health 87 

18. Expenditures — per pupil for supplies for instruction 248 

20. Expenditures — per pupil for elementary education 251 

22. Expenditures — per pupil for elementary education in other cities 253 

21. Expenditures — per pupil for high school education 252 

17. Expenditures — for janitors per school room 247 

19. Valuation of buildings per class-room 250 

23. Total property tax per capita, all purposes, Southern cities 254 

24. Total property tax per capita, all purposes, cities of same popula- 

tion class as San Antonio 255 

25. Total city debt per capita, compared with other cities 256 

A. Cost of high school by subjects taught 213 

B. Cost of high school by student-hours 215 

GENERAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 

8. Distribution of responsibility among the various authorities 168 

9. Educational science as it applies to San Antonio 176 

THE COMMUNITY 

1. The scholastic population — showing ages and nationalities 7 

2. Vocational distribution of each 1000 men employed in gainful 

occupations in San Antonio 17 

3. Number of males per 1000 employed in each important vocational 

field in San Antonio, and in Texas cities in general 19 

4. Number of women employed in certain gainful occupations per 

1000 employed 21 

5. Annual per capita expenditures for street maintenance 62 

15. Mean hourly temperature in San Antonio, for each month 226 

16. Number of January days at each level of mean daily tempera- 

ture 227 

17. Mean hourly wind velocity in San Antonio 228 



PREFATORY STATEMENT 



Chapter I. 

PREFATORY STATEMENT. 

School surveys are of different types. They vary with the 
purpose in view. The most helpful kind probably is one: (1) 
that sympathetically looks to the good that exists in the school 
system; (2) that sees this good not as the end of progress, but 
as gains made that are steps toward further gains ; (3) that 
suggests constructive plans for further progress ; and (4) that 
shows the reasons for the plans recommended so as to permit 
verification of their validity. 

In public-spirited communities everywhere — and only a 
little observation is required to show that this includes San 
Antonio — education is at present undergoing rapid changes. 
Schools are reaching more people, are affecting them for a longer 
period, are called upon to do more things than formerly, are try- 
ing to adapt the school-work to the real needs of men, and are 
searching out more effective means and methods. Both lay- 
men and schoolmen are somewhat bewildered at present at the 
multitude of proposals being made, and of new educational 
movements inaugurated. There seem to be so many diverse 
purposes and so many cross currents that it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to know in just what direction our educational craft is being 
steered, or in what direction it ought to be steered. It is prob- 
able, however, that the changes now taking place are only in 
their beginnings ; and that they will be pretty far-reaching before 
stability is attained again. 

In such a time of change and transition, cities are very 
frequently nowadays calling in the help of what we may call 
the consulting educational specialist. He is called in just as a 
physician calls in the consulting physician; or a construction 
manager, the consulting engineer. In one sense he is an out- 
sider, and his ability to advise is largely dependent upon this 
very fact, since he comes with fresh vision and unprejudiced 
mind. In another sense he is not an outsider, since he is for the 
time being as much an employe of the Board as is the superin- 



CHAPTER I. 



tendent or the business agent. Simply, he is a temporary em- 
ployee. This, I suspect, is the justification for my temporary 
employment in San Antonio. 

Upon my arrival in the city, I inquired of the Chairman of 
the Survey Committee as to the purpose of the survey. He 
replied that the one thing desired was an increase in the effici- 
ency of the school system ; that I was to study the situation in 
my own way and to make any recommendations that in my 
judgment would promote the efficiency of the schools. Beyond 
this no instructions were given nor suggestions made. I was 
given a perfectly free hand to conduct the work as I saw fit. 
I wish to express my appreciation of the way this absolute free- 
dom was combined with a universal courtesy and willing help- 
fulness on the part of every one in any way concerned in the 
work. In every contact with school board, survey committee, 
superintendent, business agent, superintendent of buildings and 
grounds, office staff, principals, teachers, janitors, and repre- 
sentatives of the general community, there was invariably that 
courtesy and hospitality for which the South is renowned, — 
certainly justly so if San Antonio is representative in this 
respect. 

The report is based upon personal observations and con- 
ferences covering four weeks, and upon facts derived from 
numerous documents. Nineteen out of the twenty-nine ele- 
mentary schools of the city were visited while classes were in 
session, a half day at a building being the usual length of visit. 
Several other elementary buildings were visited during the vaca- 
tion week when the schools were not in session. An aggregate 
of more than two full days was spent at the Main Avenue High 
School ; about one and a third days at the Brackenridge High 
School ; and about one-half day at Douglass High School. 

It is felt that the amount of visiting done in the elementary 
schools was sufficient for a fair understanding of the general 
nature of the elementary work in the city. There is a rather 
fully detailed course of study which prevails with certain modi- 
fications in all of the elementary schools. This course, although 
it is continually being modified, is in its main outlines a thing 



PREFATORY STATEMENT 



of several years standing. This has brought about a large degree 
of uniformity in the work of the various buildings. Moreover, 
the grade-leader institution which provides that one of the build- 
ing principals shall be responsible for the teaching of a given 
subject in certain of the grades throughout the city further re- 
sults in a fairly large uniformitization of the work. Then there 
is the uniform textbook series. With so many things making 
for uniformity, it is felt that a visit to nineteen of the buildings 
was sufficient for showing the nature of the elementary work 
done throughout the city. Visits were so distributed as to reach 
schools of the various races and nationalities. 

Before entering upon findings and recommendations, I wish 
to anticipate two or three objections that are sure to arise upon 
the reading of my report. One is that things are often recom- 
mended which are clearly impossible. It is quite true that many 
things are recommended that can not be accomplished suddenly. 
A ship sailing from Galveston for Australia can not arrive in 
one day, nor even in one week ; but because it can not arrive 
suddenly is no reason why it should not set out. In one day it 
can be expected to cover only one day's journey, and in one 
week only one week's journey ; but it can rightly steer the first 
or any successive day's journey only as its far-distant destina- 
tion is held in mind by captain and helmsman. And so it is with 
educational progress along most lines. The journey ahead of 
our profession by way of modernizing our labors, making them 
efficient, and making them serve twentieth century needs is yet 
a long one. The various ends in view can usually be attained 
only after many years of continuous labors toward those ends. 
Next year's moderate progress can be rightly accomplished, how- 
ever, only as it keeps the more distant ends in view. Educational 
progress to be solid and substantial must generally be reasonably 
slow. This does not mean, however, that it should be blind ; nor 
even that it should be near-sighted, looking only to those things 
that can be quickly and easily reached. There is nothing in man's 
world that should be more far-seeing than education. 

Since this report is for the layman of San Antonio as fully 
as for the school people, a second objection that will arise is 



CHAPTER I. 



that the discussion often is unnecessarily complicated and tech- 
nical. In reply let me say that it is writtten from the simple 
point of view of community needs. From beginning to end, edu- 
cation is looked at as a very practical common-sense kind of 
community service. The matters are set forth as fully as pos- 
sible in common everyday terms. The trouble is that the field 
of education is itself complicated and difficult ; and any language 
that shows the field truly must show it for what it is. To evade 
the complications is to slight the work. Naturally a report can 
be simplified by leaving out everything that requires mental ef- 
fort ; but it could not be a very searching or effective piece of 
work ; and it would under-rate the intelligence of the layman. 

Statements are sometimes rather fully at variance with con- 
ventional or traditional educational thought. Occasionally to 
those of a pre-social educational point of view, judgments will 
appear to be so wide the mark as apparently to discredit the 
judgment of the writer. All that is asked in such cases is that 
appeal be made not to tradition nor to special interests but to 
unbiased common sense on the one hand ; and on the other, to 
twentieth century leaders of social thought and action in this 
country. Generally in a city so large as San Antonio, the issue 
vnvolved will be of sufficient importance to warrant such appeal 
and investigation. If my report can bring about such contin- 
uing investigation, it will have accomplished its largest purpose. 

A third objection will be that there is too much educational 
interpretation and discussion in this report. On the contrary, 
in my opinion, there is too little. Things called into question in 
whole or in part involve an annual expenditure on the part of the 
city of not less than half of the school budget, — let us say 
$250,000; or a million dollars every four years. Our discussion 
relates, therefore, to policies of large moment both to taxpayers 
and to children and youth. The relatively few pages given to 
things involving such large expenditures of time and money and 
effort are really inadequate for proper community understand- 
ing. The whole discussion of these momentous questions is 
covered in a space equivalent to that of a single issue of a Sun- 
day newspaper, for the printing of which the people are willing 



PREFATORY STATEMENT 



to pay the entire bill once every week. Instead of this report's 
presenting too much discussion of these educational problems, 
it really presents but a beginning of discussion for the pur- 
pose of precipitating further discussion. Just enough is said 
to introduce the problems. It is for the community itself to 
carry forward most of the discussion. The newspapers in all 
probability will be glad to aid in carrying it on very much 
further. 

Finally, a fourth objection to be made is that I have been 
so busy in looking for the places where the work might be 
tightened up and made more efficient that I have tended to lose 
sight of the great amount of good and even excellent work that 
h going on in the schools of San Antonio. My method of 
treatment actually lends color to this objection, since I usually 
give a small amount of space to pointing out the gains that have 
been made and then a fairly large amount of space in pointing 
out further gains yet to be accomplished. As we point to things 
not yet done and which need yet to be done we are pointing to 
things which may be called shortcomings or defects in the 
school system. In my opinion they can not be rightly so called. 
When a ship sailing from Galveston to Australia does not reach 
its port in a week this can not be imputed to the ship as a short- 
coming or a failure. Likewise, the falling short of the desirable 
in San Antonio's school work is to be looked upon simply as 
incomplete progress ; as a journey that is only half traveled. 
After the ship referred to has covered half its journey, captain 
and helmsman can drop from view most of the things behind 
them. What they must keep in mind very fully is that portion 
of the journey that is yet ahead of them. And so in discussing 
the school-work of the city. Much progress has been made; the 
schools are in a healthy growing condition; in many respects 
they are fully abreast with the best work going on in any portion 
of our country. The city will have to be numbered among cities 
of the educationally progressive type. This progress that has 
been made, however, is already a matter of history. It need not 
bt set down in a report in any full fashion because it exists in 
actual concrete form within the city, and it can be seen by any- 



CHAPTER I. 



body who has sufficient interest to look. The thing that the 
city needs to give its attention to and to keep fully in mind is not 
that part of the journey which is behind them, but that portion 
of it which is ahead of them. It is for this reason that we are 
mostly concerned in this report with pointing out the lines of 
incomplete growth and to pointing the directions along which 
further growth needs to be guided. 

It is well to remember also that as one points to the needs 
of advance in the schools of San Antonio, one is usually point- 
ing to things such as found in almost every city in the country. 
Only the particular mode of manifestation is peculiar to any 
one city. Neither the laymen nor the teachers of San Antonio 
need feel in the slightest chagrined at having the defects, — or I 
would call them, the needs of further growth, — pointed out in 
this report. The city that has reached the point of searching 
self-examination is farther along the road of progress than those 
content to let things drift without incurring the trouble of taking 
their bearings. 

In various sections of this report I shall have occasion to 
point out what appear to be a number of seriously wasteful 
shortcomings, as we shall have to call them for convenience. 
Most of them, however, can not be laid at any one man's door. 
Responsibility in most cases is fairly widely distributed ; and 
present conditions have grown out of previous ones in which the 
responsibility was equally widely distributed. For this reason we 
have made no attempt to locate personal responsibility for educa- 
tional deficiencies. 

In order that our examination of the fundamental aspects 
of education in San Antonio should not be lost in a multitude 
of details, we have held fairly consistently to a discussion of 
these main outlines of the work. We have puropsely refrained 
from entering into a discussion of the details of which the larger 
things are made up. If these latter are properly taken care of 
then, the details will fall into their places in perfectly natural 

ways. 

Respectfully submitted, J. F. BOBBITT. 

University of Chicago, March 27, 1915. 



THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 



Chapter II. 

THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS. 

According to the last school census there were in San An- 
tonio 21,983 children of school age. They were of diverse races 
and nationalities. The number of children of the different 
nationalities is shown in the following chart: 

Americans 
Agres and Mexican Negro Total 

Europeans 

7 years 1,456 1,076 267 2,799 

8 years 1,386 1,016 240 2,642 

9 years 1,192 898 234 2,324 

10 years 1,207 889 212 2,308 

11 years 1,138 838 191 2,161 

12 years 1,174 847 182 2,203 

13 years 1,078 798 172 2,048 

14 years 1,116 830 210 2,156 

15 years 845 627 164 1,636 

16 years 869 652 179 1,700 

Total 11,461 8,471 2,051 21,983 

To these we must really add the number 17 and 18 years of 
age, now that the high school training, — full time or part time — 
is coming to be looked upon as a necessity. And as kindergartens 
are introduced those 6 years of age are being included among 
the number for which the city admits educational responsibility. 
The number of children needing education is therefore consider- 
ably larger than shown by the census,— probably above 25,000. 

Now what should be done by the schools of San Antonio, 
public and private, for these 25,000 children? What are the re- 
sults to be achieved that are deemed so important that the people 
of the city are willing to spend $500,000 a year upon the public 
schools, and another quite large amount upon the parochial and 
private schools ? It may at first seem unnecessary to raise such 
a question. In the minds of many, the schools have long known 



CHAPTER II. 



what to do ; the central problem is merely one of getting it done 
efficiently. 

As a matter of fact, neither in San Antonio nor in any city 
have the purposes of education been clearly defined. The ma- 
jority of the weaknesses in any system trace back directly or in- 
directly to this vagueness of purpose. Communities generously 
provide funds for the work, but nowhere have definite plans and 
specifications been drawn up that fully and completely define the 
results that are to be achieved by the public schools, in terms of 
what the community needs. If a man should set aside $500,000 
for constructing a building, and then furnish no definite plans 
or specifications as to the particular things to be done, there is 
small probability that he would get what he needed. There is 
large probability that much of the work would be badly adapted 
to his purposes ; that it would be of inferior quality ; and that 
there would be a large waste of money. If he built a new 
$500,000 building each year in this same unspecified manner, 
the losses would be cumulative. 

It is just as necessary in carrying forward the labors of a 
school system to know what things need to be done and what 
things need not to be done. Unless the clearly needful things 
are definitely set down for the work of the schools, there is 
extremely small probability that an annual expenditure of $500,- 
000 of the people's money will secure a maximum of what might 
b^ obtained for that money; or anything near it. The waste is 
likely to be just as large as in the case of the building referred 
to. Where educational purposes are not clearly defined in 
terms of community needs, a city is indeed fortunate if the 
annual waste is not less than one-fifth of the amount expended, 
or in this case $100,000. And the losses are cumulative. And 
the losses to the children are far greater than this mere financial 
loss. 

Let us here enumerate some of the educational needs of 
San Antonio whVh probably can not be called into question by 
any thoughtful indvidual ; and then in succeeding chapters dis- 
cuss the situation with reference to these matters in somewhat 
greater detail. 



THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 



The community money is spent and the sacrifices made for 
the purpose of fitting the 25,000 children for effective perform- 
ance of their adult activities. A fully rounded educational pro- 
gram should therefore be designed : 

(1) To fit the children and youth for effective performance 
of the labors of their life's callings. 

(2) To lay a broad and secure foundation for sound judg- 
ment as to the various social, economic, and industrial problems 
with which one is concerned as a citizen in a democracy. 

(3) To lay a secure foundation in knowledge and in habits 
for life-long health and physical vitality. 

(4) To develop habits of healthy and socially desirable 
leisure occupations. 

(5) To give effective training in the means needed for 
social intercommunication ; namely the language or the languages 
that one actually needs. 

(6) To train individuals for the activities concerned in the 
rearing and education of children; or in other words, the func- 
tions of parenthood. 

(7) To train one for his religious activities. 

Except as education seeks to make one more effective in 
performing his activities in one or another of these various fields, 
there can be no sound reason for expending the people's money 
for its support. 

Whatever is done in school must be seen definitely to further 
one or another of these seven purposes. 

Whatever can not be seen to further some one of these pur- 
poses has no place in the schools. It should not be permitted to 
live parasitic upon the funds provided by the community. 

Whatever is now left out of the course of study which is 
needed for promoting effective training in any one of these 
seven fields should be included at the proper age and under the 
proper circumstances. 

Naturally in our public schools for well-known reasons the 
trair mg for religious activities can not be included under present 
conditions Until the elements of the community can agree 



10 CHAPTER II. 

among themselves, naturally they will have to find some other 
means of taking care of this training. That it must be left out 
of public education is the fault of this sectarianism and not of 
the schools. 

In discussing the work of the public schools in San Antonio," 
we shall assume that unless a thing done can be justified on one 
or the six bases enumerated, it has no business there. We shall 
have occasion to point to a number of things that should be re- 
duced in amount or dropped altogether. We shall also have 
to point out many additional things that ought to be included in 
the course of study since they are needs for the effective train- 
ing for activities m one or another of these six fields. 

The old educational doctrine that there must be studies for 
strengthening the mind contains nowadays as much truth as it 
ever did. But with the growing complexities of modern life and 
with the enormous amount of real knowledge and real training 
for sound judgment in the six fields of practical affairs enumer- 
ated, we are coming to see that in getting the necessary knowledge 
and judgment in these fields, we have nowadays enough mental 
work for all of the necessary strengthening of the mind, — and 
even some to spare. So much useful knowledge is now needed 
that there is no longer any necessity of including ancient, musty, 
useless studies merely for the intellectual gymnastics that they 
provide. They are no more needed than are dumb-bells by a 
blacksmith, or back exercises by a coal-heaver. 

THE PLACE OF SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION. 

The most substantial and fundamental portions of one's 
education are obtained out of school. As one looks at the fields 
of human vocation, of civic activity, of caring for one's health, 
one's recreations, etc., it is quite clear that it is through observa- 
tion and participation on the part of children and youth in the 
real activities as found in home, shop, store, club, church, street, 
etc., that one gets the foundation of all of his training in each of 
the several fields enumerated. Not only does he get his basic 
training through such actual participation, but it is in fact the 



THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 11 

only way in which it can be had. Only through the real ex- 
periences of life can one come to know the nature of the realities 
of life. This must be clearly realized before one can understand 
the place of scholastic education. 

The educational work of the schools is only supplementary. 
It can not be rightly judged except as it is seen to be merely 
supplementary. The schools add to the knowledge obtained in 
one's social contacts. They round out this knowledge; they 
complete it ; they correct the errors. 

As living conditions nowadays grow more artificial and 
complicated, the amount of knowledge required is greatly in- 
creased. Much of this knowledge does not lie clearly upon the 
surface of affairs, is not generally diffused through the adult 
community, and cannot be got through social contacts, observa- 
tion, and participation. The supplementary training by the 
schools grows more and more necessary, and greater in amount. 
It cannot be genuine or useful, however, except as it is supple- 
mentary to the fundamental training of the world itself, and 
fitted to the latter as exactly as a house is fitted to its founda- 
tion; or a tree to the roots out of which it grows. 

Two complications of this simple relation need to be men- 
tioned. In the first place, certain fundamental activities of the 
community are nowadays being transferred in part to the school 
itself, and carried on under its direction in order that the supple- 
mentary training may be intimately related to the fundamental 
portion. Garment-making, embroidery, cooking, canning, laun- 
dry work, the making of furniture, the construction of sidewalks, 
fences, buildings, etc., are actual vocational activities which are 
in some part being transferred to the school premises and done 
under the direction of the teachers. There is no intention of 
making the school a vocational institution in itself. These por- 
tions of community labor are transferred merely for administra- 
tive convenience in order to bring the foundation close to the 
educational superstructure which the schools are commissioned 
to build. Because of the necessity of having such foundation 
close at hand it is probable, even certain, that a much larger por- 
tion of practical, vocational production will in time be accom- 



12 CHAPTER H. 

plished under educational direction for training purposes. Many 
such activities have to be transferred to and developed at the 
schools nowadays in order that children and youth may even 
have access to the fundamental activities. So specialized is in- 
dustry becoming, so shut up within high walls with "No Admit- 
tance" posted on every door that the fundamental contacts with 
industry, once so easy for childhood, are being withdrawn. The 
school has to make good the deficiency. As fundamental con- 
tacts are narrowed outside, the scholastic supplementary must 
be correspondingly widened inside. 

There are many fundamental matters of a type that cannnot 
be transferred bodily to the schools, as for example factory work, 
mercantile work, specialized work in printing, house-cleaning, 
much of cooking, etc. For these, our progressive cities are com- 
ing to establish what is called part-time work so that the students 
may go out to the fundamental labors under the direction or at 
least advice of the teacher, and in this way lay the proper founda- 
tion and keep the proper intimacy between fundamental aspects 
of the training and the scholastic, supplementary aspects. There 
is also coming to be devolped the plan of giving credit for many 
kinds of home-work, — a growing recognition that there is and 
should be a connection between foundation and superstructure. 

There is a second complication entering in, which is very 
much more difficult to explain. An understanding of it is in- 
dispensable, however, before one can begin to discuss the effici- 
ency or inefficiency of the school-work in San Antonio, or in 
any other city. The conception is simple after one gets it. 
Perhaps it can best be made clear by means of an illustration, — 
even if a somewhat extended one. Take, for example, the case 
of a civil engineer who is called upon to draw up plans for 
straightening, grading, and paving the crooked, irregular streets 
of a town in which he grew up as a boy. Such a man without 
touching his surveying instruments has already in mind the basic 
knowledge needed for his work. As a boy at play, roaming the 
streets on a boy's multifarious activities, he came to know every 
curve, street and alley, every angle, offset, hillock, depression, 
elevation, creek-bank, creek-winding, etc. At the time that he 



THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 13 

learned these things, he learned them for no conscious or serious 
purpose ; simply, he was a boy at play, conscious of nothing more 
than the immediate activities of the moment, following his in- 
terests and his pleasures, and looking forward to no serious ap- 
plication of his knowledge. Yet out of this relatively aimless ex- 
perience came his very thorough and secure knowledge of every 
geographical matter within the town. Had the knowledge been 
systematically gone after, with all the aimless play element left 
out, it could not have been anything like so well done. 

When the engineer so brought up comes to the work of 
surveying the city, his activities take on an entirely different 
character. His surveying is for the purpose of getting facts. 
But the purpose is wholly conscious. His facts now must be 
complete, exact, and systematized. He must be careful, intensive, 
thorough. Everything must be carefully controlled for practical 
ends. Yet after all, his work on this level involves but a refining, 
completing, and ordering of the knowledge got as a boy at play. 

For purposes of our discussion we shall call his first type 
of learning the Preliminary; and the later type, the Practical, 
or the Functional. 

This illustration shows two kinds of learning, both of which 
are absolutely indispensable for all our education. On the one 
hand, with only the play motive, following only the lines of in- 
terest, should children and youth, it appears, become acquainted 
with the general outlines of every important field of human 
knowledge and experience. Simply by wandering through the 
fields of knowledge without any particular consciousness of the 
serious values or purposes of the learning, they lay the wide and 
secure foundation for the exact studies that must necessarily 
come later. They read their history, for example, for the sake 
of their interest in the human story, the anecdotes, the biog- 
raphies, the adventures, the struggles and conflicts, etc., etc. ; and 
all without any consciousness that they are laying the founda- 
tions for later civic knowledge and judgment. In their geograpi- 
cal readings, they imbibe the gossip of how people live in other 
lands and climes, or they follow geographically the campaigns 
of the present armies and navies in Europe, without any thought 



14 CHAPTER HI 

of the fact that they are laying a geographical foundation later 
to be used for an understanding of industrial and commercial 
relations. All such preliminary studies, like children's play, need 
to be rich in detail, full of human color, infinitely varied, 
touched lightly and then left behind, taken up as prompted 
by interest not by logic, superficial, omnivorous, repititious, 
and loosely organized. For such are the ways of childhood ; and 
even of youth and adulthood in the hours of one's freedom. 

To say that the preliminary portions of serious education 
are to be on the order of play no longer shocks the proprieties 
as it once did. Nowadays we better understand the serious 
values of play ; and we recognize the value of harnessing up the 
play-motive when we wish strenuous exertion. It does not mean 
a lack of effort. It means an intensification of effort. It is 
the boy who wants to win in the spelling match who will man- 
fully master the entire spelling book as a part of the game. It is 
the boy who wishes to surpass his mates in arithmetic, who takes 
it as a game, who will come nearest to mastering every difficulty. 
That which one enjoys is the thing at which one will work the 
hardest. Given a healthy play-motive and the right opportunities, 
and it is like having a high-power engine and a straight track 
ahead. 

Education must not stop on this level, however. This is 
only preliminary to higher educational levels of a clearly practi- 
cal functional character. Unless this higher level is reached 
and covered, half of education is not accomplished. After one 
has acquired preliminary familiarity with the field of history, 
for example, one is ready for taking up such civic questions as 
railroad regulation, or conservation of our natural resources, 
or control of public utilities, or any other of our thousand civic 
problems, and study their historical background by way of 
discovering their nature. No longer will he spontaneously fol- 
low the lines of interest. His studies must be held strictly to 
the topic in hand by the serious purposes involved. He is getting 
practical information to be used for judgment upon questions 
daily presented to the citizen in a democracy. Studies on this 
level must be careful, systematic, exact, thorough, and fairly 



THE WORK OF THE SCHOOLS 15 

complete. Serious practical motives now entirely replace the 
play-motive. It should still be so done as to be enjoyable ; but 
the question of its enjoyableness is not now the primary one. 
It is to be done because one knows the information is needed, 
whether one likes it or not. 

Now let me indicate in a few words why I have given so 
much space to sketching the meaning of education of Funda- 
mental and Supplementary, Preliminary and Functional : 

1. The supplementary relation of school work to community 
life in San Antonio is not greatly taken into account in drawing 
up the courses of study. As a result there is a considerable 
quantity of useless and wasteful work. Even when the material 
is of a kind needed, the failure to build it into the pupil's funda- 
mental experiences, brings much of the teaching to naught. It 
is feebly learned, loosely held in mind, and quickly forgotten. 
Also, much needed teaching is left out because of the work's not 
growing naturally out of fundamental realities. 

2. Except for the teaching work of shop, sewing-room, 
kitchen, and commercial department, practically all the work of 
both elementary and high schools is of the preliminary pre- 
functional type. The purpose is to give pupils over-views of the 
general content of history, geography, grammar, physics, etc. 
This is very necessary, certainly, as part of the work ; but the 
functional half to which this should lead is mostly omitted. The 
preliminary, too, is over-systematized, over-abstract, too technical, 
the work too slow ad intensive for this stage of progress. In 
other words, there is too much time given to work of the pre- 
liminary level, and much of it is done in a manner unsuitable tc 
this level, and the larger portion of the functional training lost 
sight ot. 

Where inefficiency is found in the schools of San Antonio, 
it can usually be traced to one or the other of these two errors. 



16 CHAPTER HI. 

Chapter III. 

EDUCATION FOR VOCATION. 

Most of the 22,000 children of school age in San Antonio 
will in time be obliged to earn their living. The school should 
therefore deal with every pupil on the theory that he will be 
obliged to earn his living. Since one's work is as important as 
any other function that one will ever perform, if public money is 
to be expended for education at all, this should doubtless have 
a share proportionate to its value. A city should expect full 
returns for this investment through the increased productiveness 
of labor efficiency. 

We cannot know what vocation any given child will follow ; 
but we do know that the labors which are done today must 
be done tomorrow. The vocational distribution of the present 
adult population shows the approximate distribution of the popu- 
lation ten or twenty years hence, when the pupils now in school 
shall have taken up their adult responsibilities. However much 
parents may wish their sons to take professional or managerial 
courses, as a matter of fact there can be no greater proportion 
of lawyers, doctors, journalists, or engineers, in the next gene- 
ration than there are in this. There must in fact be just as great 
a proportion as now of plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, mer- 
cantile employees, railroad men, factory operatives, etc. While 
it is the school's duty to help those who are to enter professional 
and managerial callings as fully as possible, it is none the less 
the duty of the school to provide equally for effective training 
for those who enter every other useful calling. Since compara- 
tively few students will ever enter the professions, the chief 
vocational responsibility of the schools lies in helping those 
who are to enter agriculture, manufacture, mechanical trades, 
commerce, transportation, public service, mining and clerical 
occupations. 

The vocational distribution of the men in San Antonio 
at, shown by the occupational census of 1910 is shown in Table 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 17 

II. The figures denote the number of men per thousand who 
were gainfully employed in each of the various occupations listed 
in the schedule. 

Table II. 

Vocational Distribution of Each 1000 Men Employed in Gainful 
Occupations in San Antonio. 

San Average of 

Antonio Cities 

Manufacturing and Mechanical Industry 336 473 

Trade 226 175 

Transportation 129 1 19 

Domestic and Personal Service 120 69 

Clerical Occupations 69 82 

Professional Service 56 43 

Agriculture, Gardening 32 10 

Public Service 28 23 

Extraction of Minerals 4 6 

Total 1000 1000 

If all of the new generation remains in San Antonio the boys 
now growing up would have to distribute themselves among 
the various occupational groups about as shown by the figures. 
Some of these groups will probably grow in the relative num- 
bers of workers, while others may decline somewhat. On the 
whole, however, the figures of today show about what conditions 
must be twenty years hence when the present generation of boys 
shall have taken their place in the world of adult affairs. If all 
of the boys remain in San Antonio the list shows the things in 
which vocational education is most needed. The second and 
third columns show that whether they go to other cities or re- 
main, about the same things are needed. The table does not con- 
sider the case of those who go to the farm. Doubtless in a 
country where agriculture is and probably will be the chief in- 
dustry, many of the boys will go to the farms. This should be 
studied, but at present we have no figures bearing upon the 
matter. 



IS CHAPTER II. 

Whether a young man growing up in San Antonio remains 
in the city or goes to another city the chances are about 34 in 
a hundred that he will enter some manufacturing or mechanical 
pursuit ; about 20 in a hundred that he will enter trade ; about 
1? in a hundred that he will be engaged in the transportation 
ot persons or commodities; about 10 in a hundred that he will 
perform domestic or personal service ; about 7 chances in a 
hundred that he will do clerical work ; about 6 chances that he 
will enter one of the professions ; 3 chances that he will re- 
side in the city and carry on agriculture or gardening work ; 
and about 3 chances in a hundred that he will be engaged in 
public service. 

The figures can be made still more concrete. The num- 
ber of boys leaving public schools each year at all levels is at 
the present time in the neighborhood of 1000. Of these 1000 
San Antonio boys leaving each year, about 80 will become sales- 
men or helpers in stores ; about 70 will become wholesale or 
retail dealers ; 50 or 60 will become teamsters or deliverymen ; 
60 others will work on the street and steam railroads ; another 
60 still will engage in carpentry, cabinet-making, and other wood- 
working industries ; about 35 will become agents of one kind or 
another ; 30 or 35 will enter industries involving work with iron 
and steel; 25 or 30 will carry on agriculture or gardening; 15 
or 20 will become painters, glaziers, or varhishers ; an equal num- 
ber will become bookkeepers and accountants ; and about the 
same number, builders and contractors. Here we have a rather 
long list of occupations into which the number of boys enter- 
ing each year is sufficiently large to warrant the formation of 
vocational classes of a rather specialized sort. The number going 
into each other important vocational field can be read in Table 
III. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 



19 



Table III. 

Number Males per 1000 Employed in Each Important Vocational 

Field in San Antonio, and in Texas Cities in General. 

Occupational Census of 1910. 



% -° 



.2 c 

~ CD 

b<3 



Salesmen and helpers in stores , 85 80 66 

Wholesale and retail dealers 71 67 55 

Servants, waiters, porters 61 58 27 

Teamsters, deliverymen, livery stables 60 54 40 

Steam and Street R. R. employees 59 73 55 

Wood-working industries (skilled and semi-skilled) 59 53 54 

Agents, real estate, insurance, etc 39 34 18 

Iron and Steel industries (skilled and semi-skilled) 31 35 83 

Clerks (excepting clerks in stores) _ 26 43 31 

Agriculture and gardening 31 18 13 

Painters, glaziers, varnishers 18 15 16 

Bookkeepers and accountants 18 25 17 

Builders and contractors 16 13 10 

Manufacturing officials and overseers _ 16 18 30 

Barbers 11 11 8 

Printing industry 10 12 15 

Express, post, telegraph, telephone 10 13 8 

Lawyers 9 9 6 

Clothing industries 9 8 9 

Stationary engineers and firemen 8 11 17 

Plumbers, gas and steam fitters 8 7 10 

Hotel, restaurant, boarding-house keepers 8 8 6 

Police, watchmen, detectives,, etc 8 8 9 

Brick and stone masons .'. 8 7 9 

Physicians and surgeons 7 8 6 

Electricians 7 7 7 

Leather industries 7 6 16 



20 CHAP T ER II. 

Janitors and sextons 5 5 5 

Stenographers and typewriters 5 7 3 

Metal workers (other than iron and steel) 5 6 10 

Laundry workers 5 5 4 

Musicians and music teachers 5 4 3 

Clay, glass, and cement workers 4 4 8 

Civil and mining engineers 4 5 3 

Teachers 4 4 3 

Clergymen 4 5 4 

Fire department employees 3 4 3 

Editors, reporters, authors 2 2 2 

Dentists 2 2 2 

Draftsmen and designers 113 

Mechanical engineers Ill 

Unskilled labor, and scattering 230 244 263 

Enough boys leave each year who are to enter printing in- 
dustry to warrant the introduction of this training into the 
schools. It would more than pay for itself. It will be noted 
that the number of boys entering clothing industries each year 
is fairly large. This would indicate that perhaps some scholastic 
training is needed by boys as well as by the girls. Only nine of 
the boys leaving school each year, out of the thousand from all 
grades, will become lawyers. Only seven will become physicians. 
Only four will become teachers ; an equal number cleryymen. 
Only two will become editors, reporters or authors. Only two 
will become dentists. Only one a draftsman ; and one a me- 
chanical engineer. The figures show clearly that the vocations 
for which training is needed by the large numbers are not the 
professional. Into the professions only about five percent of 
the men go. 

Table IV shows the number of women, ten years and over 
who were employed in certain gainful occupations in 1910. 
These figures' also refer to the number of women per thousand 
employed. They refer only to women employed in gainful oc- 
cupations, and do not include women employed in their own 
homes where no remuneration is paid. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 21 

Table IV. 

The Number of Women 10 Years of Age and Over Employed 

in Certain Gainful Occupations per 1000 Employed. 

Census of 1910. 



o B_ 

+3 a, .^ .£ a 



Servants, cooks, waitresses 242 247 202 

Laundresses, etc 215 247 93 

Clothing industries 113 99 128 

Saleswomen 71 61 61 

Teachers 54 49 52 

Boarding house, hotel, restaurant 54 53 29 

Nurses and midwives 40 37 34 

Stenographers and typewriters 35 51 47 

Bookkeepers and accountants 23 20 31 

Employed housekeepers 14 13 20 

Musicians and music teachers 14 12 13 

Retail dealers , 13 9 12 

Telephone, etc 12 19 18 

Food manufacturing industries 11 8 17 

Clerks (excepting clerks in stores) 9 12 17 

Manicurists, hairdressers, etc 6 5 5 

Printing industries 5 5 6 

About one-tenth of the population of San Antonio is Negro. 
The census bureau does not furnish separate figures for San 
Antonio. A few of the occupations listed in the tables are 
entered largely by negroes. Most of them, however, are re- 
cruited from those who pass through the white schools. 

THE FACTORS OF VOCATIONAL EFFICIENCY. 

The first question that arises is, What does one need in 
order to be efficient in one's calling? This answered we can 
mention the training needed, and judge of the effectiveness of 
the work now being done. There are a number of things of 
which we can be fairly certain : 



22 CHAPTER II. 

I. One needs to know the nature of the factors that enter 
into one's work, know how to control each of them, and to have 
the necessary skill for such control. In other words, one needs 
to know the technical science concerned in one's labors ; to 
know how to make practical application of this technical science 
to one's every-day problems ; and to be skillful in doing each 
kind of task of which the work is made up. Illustrations of 
these things will be given when we come to discuss the work of 
training for garden and kitchen, for shop and sewing-room, etc. 

II. A man needs to understand the work that is being 
done by his co-workers in the same general field, — in the same 
factory, the same store, the same railroad organization, etc. The 
work of each man must fit into the large general scheme, along 
with the work of each other man. This is needed for purposes 
of efficient industrial co-operation. For vocational stimulation, 
a man needs also to be conscious of the fact that his own work is 
well-known and understood by each of the other workers of his 
vocational group ; that they are in a position to appreciate 
superior work on his part ; and that they are equally in a position 
to condemn inferior work. Such mutual understanding is one 
of the large purposes of systematic vocational training. It is 
generally accomplished during the learning period by putting 
the man to work at first one and then another of all of the 
various kinds of tasks performed within the establishment ; and 
of giving him the necessary technical science concerned in the 
performance of each of these various types of labor. 

III. The worker needs* to understand the points of view, 
the standards of judgment, the rights, responsibilities, etc., of 
the management. On the other hand, he needs to know that the 
managers thoroughly understand the nature of the work that 
he is doing, the conditions under which the work is being done, 
his duties, resposibilities, and rights. This is only a wider ex- 
tension of the matter referred to in the previous paragraph. 
Management and men are engaged in carrying through a single 
scries of labors. The efficiency of either is dependent upon the 
efficiency of the other ; and it is dependent upon mutual co-op- 
eration. This can be based only upon mutual understanding. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 23 

This third necessity of vocational efficiency is not everywhere 
recognized ; but it is being shown clearly in the recent testimony 
before our U. S. Industrial Commission. One of our great 
captains of industry, testifying before this Commission a few 
weeks ago said: 

"I favor the democratization of industry absolutely, and 
whatever intelligent legislation may be directed to that end. The 
industrial worker does not want merely an increase in wages. He 

wants something more — something higher And 

he will get these things. He should have them 

But legislation cannot accomplish all this alone. There must be 
co-operation of the employer, the employed, and the public- 
spirited citizen " 

There can, however, be no efficient and genuine co-opera- 
tion except as it is based upon intelligence and full mutual un- 
derstanding. In a later section we shall point out what history, 
geography, general reading, civics, etc., ought to be taught by 
way of taking care of this great national vocational need; and 
how these subjects now fall short of their high mission because 
of their dealing so much of the time. with mere erudition and 
pedantic trivialities. 

IV. A worker should know the community needs as re- 
lated to the labors of his calling. He should be conscious of the 
fact that the community in general knows the nature of his 
rights, duties, and responsibilities ; that his work is not unrecog- 
nized ; that they are willing to reward him for efficient service, 
and to withhold reward for ineffecient service. Each vocational 
group is turning out some necessary commodity used by all of 
the other groups, and in turn all of the other social groups 
are turning but commodities that are used by him. Just as the 
men within a factory need to understand each other as the basis 
ot co-operation, so within society as a whole, the various voca- 
tional groups need to recognize the ways in which each group 
supports the labors of each other group, and thus through ef- 
fectively serving others most effectively serves itself. The need 



24 CHAPTER II. 

of this wide vocational enlightenment has not been very fully 
recognized. Most education is only dimly conscious of the need. 
Many facts relating to these wider relations are taught in our 
histories and our geographies, but they are generally badly taught 
because schools have not clearly defined the purposes for which 
taught. These subjects, however, together with civics, econ- 
omics, and perhaps a portion of literature, should be organized 
and developed so as to serve this fourth highly necessary pur- 
pose. 

V. Before there can be permanent vocational efficiency 
within a man, he must possess high standards of living so as to 
want to succeed in full measure and upon a high social level. 
The man who wants little will do little. The man who wants 
much will do much. One who wants little will be satisfied with 
things that are meager in quantity, cheap in quality, and inex- 
pensive in money and labor. The man of high standards of liv- 
ing who wants much is never satisfied with meager quantity, 
nor cheap quality ; and the things cannot be had inexpensively. 
He must think and think hard ; he must work and work hard, in 
order to get the things that he wants. High appreciation, high 
desires and ambitions, high standards of living are therefore the 
most powerful motive forces for driving men to becoming effi- 
cient, forceful thinkers and workers in any occupational field. 
Whatever the school can do that will raise standards of apprecia- 
tion and standards of living will act indirectly in producing vo- 
cational efficiency. Although the action is indirect, it is funda- 
mental. 

When these five things can be fully developed within the 
people of a community, they will be fully trained for their 
various callings. Whatever training will promote one or another 
of these five things is justifiable educational work. If it is 
already in the curriculum, it should be kept there, expanded, 
and perfected. If anything can be found which will promote 
one or another of these things which is not already in the curri- 
culum it should be placed there. Anything which is now in the 
course of study for vocational purposes, but which cannot be 
seen to serve in any one of these five ways, should be excluded 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 25 

from the course of study. These principles of judgment and 
selection are general and can be applied continuously by teachers 
and supervisors. The applications made in this chapter to the 
work in San Antonio are to be looked upon only as illustrations 
of the work to be done. 

The fundamental aspect of the training of children and 
youth along each of these five lines takes place in the home, 
on the street, in one's play activities, one's observations, and 
participation in the human activities that surround one within 
the community. During earlier conditions in this country 
all of this portion of one's vocational education was accomplished 
with very little scholastic help. Labor was simple rule-of-thumb. 
Technical science had not been greatly applied. The processes 
were easily observed, since they were not greatly complicated. 
The apprentice could learn as much as the master through mere 
participation and observation. The fundamental out-of-school 
aspects of education were then sufficient for all practical pur- 
poses. There appeared to be no scholastic supplementary train- 
ing needed. At the present time, however, processes have grown 
highly complex; and in certain callings at least, a very great 
amount of technical information is needed for success. This 
cannot be learned through mere looking on, or even by working 
as an apprentice. The processes are too complicated, and the 
science is hidden in the minds of the workmen. Moreover, as 
organizations have grown nation-wide, the understanding and the 
control of the social relations referred to especially in the third 
and fourth factors enumerated above have become endlessly 
complicated. At the same time, the need of an understanding 
o* these social relations has been greatly increased. The funda- 
mental understanding of social relations got through community 
contacts must be very greatly supplemented and completed and 
filled out by the schools, in order that men who live within 
narrow communities may be brought to understand the large 
nation-wide industrial and economic movements. 

The fundamental vocational training must still be accom- 
plished outside of the school just as fully as ever; or by trans- 
ferring a portion of these fundamental labors to the school for 



26 CHAPTER II. 

educational purposes because of the difficulty of access to them 
in the community. The more the work can be accomplished 
under the real conditions of the practical world, rather than 
under school conditions, the better the work will be, all things 
else being equal. Under present conditions the more the funda- 
mental activities have to be transferred to the school for teach- 
ing purposes, the poorer the work is likely to be. It is at pres- 
ent so very difficult to develop an actual vocational atmosphere 
within the school. 

Before organizing vocational training within the schools 
on any level and for any one of the purposes above specified, 
teachers and community should search out the fundamental 
vocational influence with which the children are already in 
actual contact. These should be used as the foundation upon 
which all later building is accomplished. Generally they will 
have to be broadened and deepened so as to give a broad and 
secure foundation for the supplemental training of the schools. 
After they have been found, then the work of the class-room, 
shop, kitchen, garden, etc., should be built definitely upon these 
community foundations, rounding out and completing knowledge 
already possessed. This is the only way to keep the school 
work anchored to reality ; the only way to be sure that it is 
useful and serviceable, and worth paying for. 

VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN SAN ANTONIO. 

In this field of training, in very many respects, San Antonio 
must be ranked among the more progressive cities of the coun- 
try. In the variety of occupations already introduced in some 
degree, in the practical quality of the work, and even more in 
the general spirit and purposes actuating those in charge, the 
city has taken a very advanced position. The high school 
takes care of four years of commercial training. Shop-work 
is given to the boys in the two upper grades of the elementary 
schools and through the four years of the high school, covering 
carpentry, joinery, furniture-making, wood-turning, pattern- 
making, foundry practice, forging, machine shop work, and 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 27 

mechanical drawing. In the vocational and Negro schools it is 
given in a larger amount of time and begins earlier in the grades. 
For the girls of the regular courses, sewing begins in the sixth 
grade and continues to the end of the high school ; cooking is 
given to all grades beginning with the eighth. In the vocational 
and colored schools, sewing and cooking begin as early as the 
third and fourth grades. At the new Negro high school the 
city is introducing gardening, poultry raising, horticulture, 
floriculture, bench work with wood, iron work, forging, auto- 
mobile operation and repair, cement construction, sewing, cook- 
ing, laundry work, manicuring and hair-dressing, and a course 
in cooking and catering for Negro boys. Not many of our pro- 
gressive cities can provide a longer list. 

We shall observe as we take up some of these matters one 
by one that much yet remains to be done by way of developing 
the work ; but San Antonio is not alone in this respect. This 
is really the situation in every city where such work is being 
introduced. We shall have occasion to point out two or three 
principal kinds of defects in the present work. In the first place, 
it will be found that the work at the schools consists sometimes 
oi"' little more than merely a transfer of fundamental community 
activities to the school premises. This is good certainly ; and 
often altogether necessary, since if it is not transferred to the 
school, students have no way of getting into contact with it any- 
where. But when so transferred it must not be left too fully 
upon the rule-of-thumb level of community work. The supple- 
mentary training portion should be fully developed ; — the science, 
the drawing and design, the mathematics, the economics, and the 
studies of a social nature relating to each calling. 

A second defect often to be pointed out will be the lack 
of normal basic foundations for the supplemental activities in 
the class-rooms. There is often too little related fundamental 
experience, either at home or at school ; or it is a pretended, 
devitalized, artificial, make-believe, foundation for the vocational 
training. 

A third kind of failure is the teaching of the supposedly 
technical information, mathematics, science, drawing and design, 



28 CHAPTER II. 

together with social studies like history and geography, without 
any real or vital relation between these studies and the funda- 
mental things of the vocational world to which they are supposed 
to refer. 

COMMERCIAL AND CLERICAL TRAINING. 

Courses having definite clerical and commercial reference 
are confined to the high school. There is one semester of com- 
mercial arithmetic, three of bookkeeping, two of stenography 
and typewriting, and one each of commercial geography and 
commercial law. The courses are in the hands of able teachers 
and are developing along thoroughly modern lines. 

Three que*stions arise: (1) Are there any other subjects 
presumably of a technical or vocational nature that are required 
oi these same students for graduation? (2) If so, are any of 
these presumably vocational matters unnecessary, irrelevant, 
and waste of time? (3) Are there other matters of a voca- 
tional nature not now included which ought to be incorporated 
into the course? In presenting partial answers to these ques- 
tions in the following pargraphs, we are more interested in mak- 
ing clear the nature of the problems than we are in answering 
them. The real responsibility for the solutions rests upon the 
principal of the high school and the heads of the departments 
concerned. 

Are there other subjects presumably vocational required of 
these commercial students? The high school course of study 
requires of them one and one-half years of algebra and one year 
of plane geometry. Presumably these are vocational studies. 
If one will refer back to the seven fields of human activity 
specified in Chapter II, it appears rather clear that neither 
algebra nor geometry can be of functional service in any of the 
other fields. So it must belong here, if anywhere. But clearly, 
neither study is of any vocational service to clerical or commer- 
cial people. No bookkeeper or stenographer, no buying or sell- 
ing agent, no manager of a commercial house, ever has any need 
for either algebraic operations or geometrical demonstrations. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCA TION 29 

To force them upon commercial students with the plea that it 
will be of service is to obtain their time and labor upon false 
pretenses. To hoodwink a community into paying for such use- 
less subjects is to obtain and to spend their money under false 
pretenses. The teaching of these useless subjects to commercial 
students is now costing the city several thousand dollars a year. 
The community would do better to save its money, and use it 
along useful lines that are not yet sufficiently developed. The 
chief loss is the loss of opportunity to the students because of 
this needless waste of their time. 

Two years of science are also prescribed for commercial 
students. The science thus forced upon them seems in no wise 
designed to further their vocational labors. It is just as diffi- 
cult to see how it is consciously designed to further any of their 
other activities, — a portion of the physiology excepted. It seems 
to be forced upon them not so much for their good as simply 
for filling out a four years' course. Such aimless prescription 
of work cannot be justified. There are too many things seri- 
ously needed by these students. They cannot afford to have 
tlieir time wasted in ways that do not count. And a community 
ought not to pay hard-earned money for work unless it knows 
just how that work is to count, and whether it is to count in 
desirable ways. Such irresponsible work is now going on, how- 
ever. 

A further question is, What studies are left out of the 
training of commercial students that ought to be included in 
order to take care of the five aspects of vocational efficiency 
enumerated above? First, I would mention commercial history. 
Commercial geography is already included and this is so organ- 
ized as to give a wide and very necessary survey of commercial 
relations throughout the world of the present time. Rightly 
t"> understand these relations, however, they should have his- 
torical background. For example, properly to understand the 
world's cotton industry in the various realms of production, 
manufacture, "and commercial distribution, it is necessary not 
only to view the industry as it now exists in the United States, 
England, Germany, Egypt, India, Japan, etc., but also to under- 



30 CHAPTER II. 

stand through history the nature of the social, industrial, and 
economic forces that have been at work bringing about the 
present world-situation in this industry. This is true of every 
other commercial and industrial situation treated in the commer- 
cial geographies. These two subjects fully developed in their 
economic aspects are particularly necessary for developing the 
third and fourth factors of vocational efficiency set down in our 
list. 

For developing these same factors there ought also to be a 
full and concrete study of economics. We do not here refer to the 
abstract economics that is usually taught in our colleges, but 
rather to what might better in the high school be a large ex- 
pansion of the economic side of the commercial geography 
and commercial history. The three things ought certainly to 
b( taught together. The mode of organization is easy. Simply 
organize the industrial and commercial courses in the field 
by situations. That is to say, treat the cotton industry in 
all of its various aspects geographically, historically, economi- 
cally. Treat the sugar industry in the same way. Then the 
steel industry ; and so on through the entire list. We are not 
here referring to any pedantic scheme of so-called correlation. 
We simply refer to the necessity of finding the fundamental 
situation in the fields of practical commercial affairs and then 
in the schools of giving such technical and social information 
about each situation as any practical man needs to have. There 
is nothing abstruse about the plan. It is simply every-day com- 
mon-sense. The two chief difficulties in the way of getting 
it properly done are : the traditional attitude of subject-teaching 
schoolmen, whether in city schools or colleges ; and the text- 
book situation which at the present time so largely follows the 
dictates of these same subject-teaching schoolmen. It is not 
always possible therefore to find a study of the cotton industry, 
for example, or the sugar industry, or the lumber industry, which 
properly develops alongside each other in an organic way all 
the various lines of needed information. Generally it will be 
found divided up, a part of it in one book, and a part in another 
book. The situation is sufficiently irrational ; but school people 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 31 

for the present can organize materials in a syllabus, and furnish 
the reading in the library. 

There is another aspect of this training for clerical and 
commercial occupations which is as yet insufficiently developed. 
There is not enough practical work, not enough actual contact 
with clerical and commercial realities on the part of the students. 
So far as I was able to observe, the drill work in the classes in 
typewriting, stenography, and bookkeeping, seems to be of 
commendable quality, so far as it can be made such by energetic 
teachers under conditions that are too exclusively scholastic. 
Students in these subjects remained at their practice labors 
after school was dismissed in greater numbers than any other 
class of students observed. They were trying strenuously to 
attain definite objective standards in the way of speed and accur- 
acy. These standards were based upon the actual needs of the 
commercial world into which they wish to go in the near future. 
This is naturally one of the best possible modes of anchoring 
the practice work of the commercial course to the fundamental 
realities of the commercial world during the period of training. 
It is, however, insufficient. One's imagination is not a sufficient 
substitute for reality. High school commercial courses through- 
out the country are notoriously ineffective in developing that 
necessary feeling of responsibility that is an indispensable factor 
ov vocational efficiency. For clerical or commercial people, it is 
worth as much as speed or accuracy on the typewriter. Schools 
are greatly deficient also in developing actual business points 
of view, standards of judgment, appreciation of commercial 
relations in the concrete, etc., etc. These are not things that can 
be adequately learned through telling or reading. They are 
not things in which students can be drilled in a class-room where 
commercial realities or clerical realities are non-existent. The 
responsibility, the judgment, and the other things are developed 
only by putting people into positions that demand responsibility, 
good judgment, etc. In other words, in the commerical educa- 
tion the work is a bit top-heavy on the side of the scholastic 
supplemental, and is lacking in ballast on the side of the com- 
munity fundamental portion of the'student's education. 



32 CHAPTER II. 

How can the schools introduce more contact with funda- 
mental community activities? Several things can be done. The 
school system is the largest single institution in the community ; 
and it is the most complicated one. On the material side it has 
a plant in the care and equipment of which are involved many 
score separate items. As school work is developed in ways daily 
becoming more pressing, many other items will have to be in- 
cluded. Now, the efficiency in the management of the material 
aspect of the school plant involves necessarily much accurate 
bookkeeping and accounting. Our progressive cities at the 
present time are introducing what is called the Bureau of In- 
vestigation and Appraisal. The work of such a bureau must be 
based upon accurate accounting of very many -kinds. The details 
o.r this work constitute a rather extensive series of complicated 
bookkeeping and accounting problems. San Antonio has a suffi- 
cient number for several score clerical students, for a portion 
of their practice work. Such work need not in any wise elimi- 
nate or curtail the drill work that is now done. It ought to 
stimulate it, and it ought to bring about the development of a 
number of things that cannot possibly be accomplished in an 
atmosphere of pure abstract drill work such as now obtains in 
altogether too great measure in the commercial training room, 
for the simple reason that nothing else has been found of a 
serious nature to do. 

The clerical work referred to is what is coming to be termed 
in the educational world "part-time" work. Both business men 
and schoolmen in our more progressive cities nowadays are 
introducing part-time work along many lines. In San Antonio 
there are probably small commercial and manufacturing estab- 
lishments in which the business is not large enough to warrant 
the employment of a stenographer, typewriter, or bookkeeper, 
but where there is a considerable amount of work to be done 
which the proprietor would gladly turn over to part-time student- 
workers if he could be assured of competent supervision and 
confidential relations — the latter a necessary part of vital train- 
ing, which the purely gymnastic clerical class-room work wholly 
lacks. Business men are naturally suspicious of immature work- 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATIO N _33 

ers of this type, at present, because of the general irresponsibility 
of students. They generally are irresponsible, chiefly because 
they have had no practice in bearing responsibility. Students, 
sixteen years of age and over, are in fact capable of bearing 
such responsibilities, when conditions permit this side of their 
training to be developed. 

A third suggestion for fundamental part-time work is home- 
accounting. When done adequately this is anything but a small 
piece of work. It might be continuous for high school students 
throughout the entire high school course. It might be of large 
practical significance to those concerned. It is, however, a piece 
of work that cannot be transferred to the school. Like house- 
cleaning or home-gardening, it is a type of work that must be 
done wholly at home. The facts are of an intimate family nature 
that forbid their being taken away from the home. Here, as in 
many other things, we are coming to see that teachers must 
direct work where it can best be done, not where it best suits 
their personal convenience. 

There are perhaps other fields in which part-time clerical 
and accounting work could be devised. The schools for pur- 
poses of civic education need to be in pretty close contact with 
the fundamental governmental activities of the community. 
Could part-time clerical work be arranged in connection with 
certain city offices, the work would be excellent for the clerical 
students on the side of both vocational and civic training. 
Through connecting it with a type of civic training later to be re- 
ferred to, it might incidentally be salutary for city offices. 

The fact that partially trained students are in need of checks 
and supervision can be made use of educationally in arranging 
any such system of training. When different sets of students do 
the same task independently, each serves as a check upon the 
accuracy of the work. Also, one set of students can be employed 
t:> inspect and check up the results of practical work done by 
other sets of students. To inspect work and do it effectively 
is sometimes as good training as to do the work itself ; and it is 
a part of both clerical and commercial labors. 



34 CHAPTER HI. 

TRAINING FOR HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS. 

This field of vocational training has been better developed 
than any other within the system. It is rather more easily 
developed than any other because of the facility with which so 
large a part of the fundamental activities can be transferred to 
the school premises without loss of vocational atmosphere. All 
of the sewing can be transferred bodily. Some of the canning, 
preserving, jelly-making, will also transfer. Some of the bak- 
ing would transfer if the school made up its mind to it. But even 
better than this, the whole student body finds itself at school as 
much in need of its noon-day meal as if at home ; so that the 
luncheon problem will transfer itself wholly and bodily to the 
school in so far as the schools care to undertake it for training- 
purposes. Where real work can be carried to the school in this 
fashion, the educational problems become relatively easy. 
House-cleaning, household decoration, the care and feeding of 
babies, etc., are matters that will not transfer in such simple 
fashion, and which require the school to go to the homes for 
finding the foundation activities for its technical scholastic la- 
bors. 

Training is given at present in sewing of many kinds, both 
hand and machine, simple millinery, simple household decoration, 
plain cooking, invalid cooking, household sanitation, marketing, 
home nursing, care of children, etc. The list is unusually com- 
plete. 

Since the practical labors of the household training are for 
perfecting the fundamental labors that the girls perform in their 
homes, and since the practical labors of home and school are 
integral portions of one educational task, two things are to be 
said: (1) The conditions of the practical school training 
should be considerably better in every possible way than those 
of the homes in general from which the children come ; (2) The 
school conditions must not be made so different from those of 
the home that they are severed, one from the other, the methods 
taught in the school being impossible in the home because of 
differences of equipment, materials, etc. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 35 



The physical conditions provided by the school board in 
the recently equipped household training centers, pretty ade- 
quately meet these demands. The accommodations provided at 
the Highland Park School, at the Crockett, etc., are light, sani- 
1aiy, well-aranged, orderly, well-equipped, and pleasing. The 
city is making very commendable physical provision for this 
highly necessary field of training. It is possible, however, to 
point out work observed that was being done under undesirable 
physical conditions ; as for example, the sewing in the unneces- 
sarily darkened room at the Brackenridge High School. When 
lighting standards for sewing rooms are so well known as at 
present, and when there are so many persons bearing responsi- 
bility for pointing out such a condition, — principal, superintend- 
ent of buildings, expert adviser of the board as to buildings, 
supervisor of sewing, teacher of sewing, school physician — 
it is but surprising that so exceptional a condition could be per- 
mitted to exist so long. 

On the side of technical information for the girls in house- 
hold occupation courses, what subjects are now taught that 
should be taught? What ones are not taught that should be 
taught? And what ones of ostensible vocational value are now 
required that are of insufficient vocational service to warrant 
their teaching? To begin with the first, quite a wide range of 
related technical science is now being developed. The most 
complete at present is that of household bacteriology which is 
given to all classes where cooking is taught. Others are the 
chemistry of foods, dietetics, hygiene as related to food, hygiene 
as related to dress, design as related to garment-making, physi- 
ology and hygiene as related to the care of children, household 
accounts, cost accounting in each of the fields of household ac- 
tivity, etc. These matters are all desirable. Most of them are 
in need of much further development than that now reached. 
Perhaps if we were to add the physics of the household, the list 
would be fairly complete, in range. Most of these subjects are 
not well taught for the simple reason that the necessary facilities 
are not sufficiently provided ; and where partially provided, are 
not turned toward the specific needs of household training. 



36 CHAPTER III. 

For the elementary cooking, the necessary science is yet largely 
undeveloped. There is no course in elementary science in the 
elementary school, nor are the kitchens equipped for very much 
laboratory study of the scientific factors entering into the pro- 
cesses. In the Main Avenue High School two years of science 
are required of all of the girl students who desire to graduate. 
Many take physics or chemistry. The courses at present offered, 
however, have not been drawn up with a view to meeting the 
vocational needs of these girls, — nor for specifically meeting 
any other kind of vocational needs. These high school courses 
are offering supplementary training to girls without any par- 
ticular consideration of whether it relates the fundamentals or 
not, a clear violation of the very first principle concerned in 
drawing up a science course for public education. Such required 
science courses of abstract irrelevant type are for high schools 
survivals of a form of science-teaching that is rapidly growing 
obsolete. Science for women should relate definitely to situa- 
tions in which women actually find themselves. Naturally there 
should be science study of the preliminary over-view type ; but 
it will be only introductory. The real work should come in con- 
nection with the practical situations. The high school science 
work for these girls now does give the preliminary over-view. 
But it does it badly because as introductory work it is so much 
overdone and uses such unsuitable methods and materials. And 
the broad range of functional science is pushed out and omitted 
altogether. A generous estimate will not allow more than 
fifty percent of the useful in such high school science teaching. 
The city is in all probability wasting half of the money that is 
now being spent on the teaching of this irrelevant introductory 
science to girls. And this at a time when there is a crying need 
in so many departments of woman's affairs for a fuller under- 
standing of practical applied science. The loss of several thous- 
and dollars annually expended for this fifty percent of wasted 
science-teaching is not the serious part of the matter. The 
serious thing is that girls can take so-called science courses 
without sufficiently acquiring the scientific attitude of mind 
and points of view with reference to the specific problems of 



' EDUCATION FOR VOCATIO N _37 

woman's complicated labors. The divorce of the technical and 
practical enfeebles both. The chief waste is the waste of op- 
portunity. 

The high school needs to furnish well-developed and well- 
oiganized courses for the girls in the physics of the household, 
the chemistry of the household, the bacteriology of the house- 
hold, etc. The laboratories, the equipment, appliances, materials, 
etc., should be of a sort that is related to practical household 
situations. Household physics, for example, should deal with 
heat as related to the conductivity of different metals and other 
substances used in the utensils actually employed in the house- 
hold, such as glass, porcelain, chinaware, earthenware, asbestos, 
wood, etc. The apparatus should be the utensils themselves. 
In the same manner it should deal with the mechanics of plumb- 
ing fixtures, window fixtures, ventilation, sewing machines, etc. ; 
with the mechanics and the electricity of electric motors, electric 
irons, electric fans, toasters, electric bells, batteries, etc. ; with 
color and color harmony as related to household decoration, 
garments, furniture, etc. ; and so on through a long list of 
physical matters. In the same way the work of the home 
abounds with situations involving chemical relations, so that a 
very elaborate chemistry of household matters is possible and 
highly desirable. The same can be said for bacteriological study. 

It is recommended that the science work required of the 
girls in the high school be thoroughly over-hauled, and reorgan- 
ized so as to relate it as fully as possible to practical affairs. The 
preliminary introductory surveys of each science should be con- 
ducted in a manner appropriate to such pre-practical or prepara- 
tory science. 

Another subject indispensable for the household arts is a 
fully developed course in drawing and design. There is draw- 
ing now in the manual training department for man's shop- 
labors. There is no special teacher of drawing and design at the 
present time giving corresponding work to the girls, although 
it is needed for woman's household labors as fully as for man's 
shop-work. At the present time the matters of design, color 
harmony, etc., are taken care of incidentally by the teachers of 



3.8 CHAPTER III. 

household arts. The work requires a large amount of specialized 
training, and it requires certain specialized points of view. It 
would appear that there should be employed a teacher of art 
and design as these apply to the work of the girls, who would 
give time to the art side of the girls' work in the high school 
and through the elementary schools. 

It is probably not desirable to have courses in general art 
and design in either elementary school or high school, — except 
of course for the preliminary aspects of the study. Beyond a 
little of this, to be introduced incidentally, all should probably 
bt applied art and design. There should be art for the girls 
in connection with the making of garments, curtains, hangings, 
embroidery, work bags, satchels, home decoration, home furnish- 
ings, etc., etc. All of the general principles of design can be de- 
veloped in connection with these special applications to this 
wide variety of work. 

Primarily the teacher of art for the girls should know the 
fundamental nature of the household occupations. She should 
see her drawing and design not as a thing in itself, but only as 
an aspect of the fundamental labors and thinking of the girls in 
carrying forward the occupations of the homes, or the same oc- 
cupations as they are specialized and commercialized outside 
the home. The art motive may well be strong. In fact it should 
be strong ; but it should not be the dominant one. The latter 
place should be reserved for the vocational motive with art en- 
tering in only as the hand-maiden to labor. This is already the 
attitude of the department of household occupations. The art 
side simply needs the means of development. The women of 
the community should see that it is developed. The present art 
work of the schools is in serious need of development. It is 
especially needed in the high school. 

There is a further question. Are any subjects required 
of the girls that are ostensibly for vocational purposes only, but 
which really are not worth the time, labor and cost? This is 
true of a good part of the applications of arithmetic in the ele- 
mentary school. The textbook taught is unnecessarily full for 
the girls who are not going into commercial occupations. For 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATIO N 39 

those who are going into these occupations and need the more 
specialized portions of the arithmetic, the subjects should be 
taught in the specialized commercial course of the high school. 
Certain portions of commercial arithmetic need not be forced 
upon all elementary school girls merely because some of them 
will later go into commercial labors. The city has already recog- 
nized the over-abundance of materials in the text and has already 
cut out matters like domestic exchange, foreign exchange, cube 
root, compound proportion, compound interest, annual interest, 
the introductory algebra work, etc. A committee of intelligent 
women of the community who are not teachers but who are 
familiar with the fundamentals of household occupations should 
be asked to go through the arithmetic text now taught in the 
upper grades and to point out the matters that have no sufficient 
connection with or relation to the labors that they perform and 
which could be omitted without loss from the work of the girls 
in their training for household occupations. The more such a 
committee of women could forget the arithmetical mattters that 
they themselves studied in elementary school years ago, the bet- 
ter perhaps would be their judgments as to what is actually 
needed of an arithmetical sort for household occupations. 

In the high school all of the girls who graduate are re- 
quired to take one and one-half years of algebra and one year 
of demonstrational geometry. Such a requirement is absolutely 
inexcusable. The algebra is an absolute waste ; the geometry 
is almost wholly waste. The form studies that the girls ought 
to have should be found in connection with their drawing and 
design and their construction work. The city is now paying 
several thousand dollars for the wasted teaching of a subject 
ostensibly vocational which can be of no value in their labors. 
The matter should be left to a responsible committee of lay- 
women to decide. Let the mothers of the girls who are going 
through the high school select such a committee. Let the mem- 
bers of the committee divest themselves of all academic precon- 
ceptions, and look at the situation through the eyes of straight- 
forward common-sense. 



40 CHAPTER HI. 

The problem is one of large moment to the city: because of 
the money cost to taxpayers ; because of the financial sacrifices 
of families to keep their daughters in the high school ; because 
of the great amount of labor done by the hundreds of high 
school girls ; because of the things of worth that have to be 
omitted to teach this algebra and geometry. Where so much is 
involved and where the waste is cumulative the city cannot 
afford not to investigate. The investigating committee should 
find out what the leaders of social thought and action through 
the United States think of the necessity of algebra and demon- 
strational geometry for girls and women. They should learn 
whether there is a tendency to omit these subjects, in forward- 
looking high schools, from the courses of the girls. 

The girls need mathematics. They need to think mathe- 
matically accurately in matters of household accounting, buying 
problems as related to the grocery, the dry goods store, etc., rent, 
insurance, durability and depreciation, saving and waste, rational 
distribution of the family income as related to different stand- 
ards of living, etc., etc. As we shall point out in the discussion 
on civic training, this newly developing type of education must 
include a large quantity of cost-accounting and mathematical 
economic study. To drop out mathematics useless to women will 
not really mean less mathematical thinking than in the past. 
It will mean time saved for a valuable kind of mathematics rather 
than a valueless kind. Certain of these necessary mathematical 
matters are now being developed along right lines by the house- 
hold arts department in conjunction with the accounting division 
of the commercial department. This development should be 
pushed with vigor. All applied mathematics should be taught 
in the departments in which it is applied ; and not be segregated 
in the mathematics department. 

The girls in training for household arts should be given a 
large amount of social information pertaining to home activities 
and conditions. At the present time one of the books taken up 
for study relates to woman's share in primitive culture. This 
needs to be continued down through the historical period as 
well. Other matters studied relate to the cost of living and the 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 41 

factors of control, to the social responsibilities of women in 
expending the family budget, the conditions of domestic service, 
social consideration of the various factors entering into house- 
hold administration, etc., etc. The history, the civics, and the 
geography teachers of the high school seem oblivious of their 
opportunity just here. They have not seen that these subjects 
are valueless except as they are used to illumine, to help one 
tc see in large social ways, the things of the practical every-day 
life of today. Much of the high school geography, physiography, 
as it is called, now given to the girls, is of about as much real 
value to them as would be the geology of the farther side of the 
moon. Of about equal value is much of the ancient and medieval 
history now given ; and much of the antique civics. 

These subjects need to be organized in ways discussed in 
later sections of this report. When so organized, they should 
include large quantities of information for the purpose of giving 
large historical, geographical and social background and per- 
spective to the present-day situation of the household. 

On the side of practical work, the sewing is well developed. 
The girls are making garments that are to be worn. On the 
side of cooking, the work needs development. They have less 
opportunity for cooking actual meals. The best place for the 
girls to put their domestic science information to practical ser- 
vice is in preparing the meals at their homes. The schools can- 
not count on their doing it, however, unless there is full co-opera- 
tion with the homes, and supervision of some type. The school 
crediting of home-work is an entering wedge. Contact of domes- 
tic science teacher with the mothers at school meetings and in 
their homes is necessary also. The supplementary information 
given in the school must be brought to function under normal 
conditions, or the education is not accomplished. If not so ap- 
plied the information is forgotten, and the work has been wasted. 
A community generally has too much faith in the schools' ability 
to educate under artificial isolated conditions. It simply can- 
not be done. It is but building on shifting sands. 

In some part this problem will transfer to the schools. The 
penny luncheon or nickel luncheon now coming into elementary 



CHAPTER III. 



schools may well be prepared by domestic science classes. Let 
the girls do the planning, the marketing, the cooking, the sewing, 
the collecting, etc., and the chain of real responsibilities will be 
fairly complete. The school kitchen will not then be a play- 
kitchen, but one of real work. 

The high schools offer still better opportunities, and to the 
girls of a more responsible age. Both high schools must now and 
perhaps always must have their noonday luncheon at the school. 
At present it is but a hurried feeding time under highly undesir- 
able conditions. At one of the high schools everything is purchas- 
ed from itinerant street vendors or the little local shops along the 
street ; and it is Consumed mostly on the street and in the school- 
yard as the pupils return to the buildings. It has to be bolted 
because of the brevity of time. At the other high school, certain 
basement rooms are improvised for luncheon purposes ; but no 
thought has been taken, it appears, on the part of the adminis- 
tration towards using the opportunity for educational purposes. 
It is sufficiently absurd for the high school to teach textbook 
dietetics at one hour in the day, and then violate every dictum 
of such dietetics at the luncheon hour. The domestic science 
people need to be put in charge of the preparation and the serving 
of the luncheon. The schools cannot afford to throw away such 
an excellent training opportunity. Naturally any excess purely 
routine labor might be done by hired help. But the head-work, 
so to speak, and the responsibility needs to be carried by the girls 
themselves for the sake of their education. 

EDUCATION FOR MECHANICAL OCCUPATIONS. 

Taking cities in general, more men are employed in mechani- 
cal occupations of one kind or another than in any other group. 
The proportion in San Antonio is not so large as in cities in 
general. It is, however, a class that will probably grow in num- 
bers ; and moreover, the boys of San Antonio in considerable 
number are sure to distribute themselves among many cities. 
The city is justified in laying large stress on training for mechni- 
cal labors. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 43 

In this department, as in those of commercial subjects and 
of household arts, the city has been fortunate in finding strong 
heads of departments who are able fully to take the practical 
vocational point of view. Teachers employed are generally those 
who have had practical trade experience. An excellent arrange- 
ment is found in the case of a certain teacher, who after teach- 
ing in the schools for nine months in the year, works at his trade 
during the three months of summer. Such a plan would be sal- 
utary for every teacher of vocational subjects. 

The boys are generally found making things of use, — per- 
sonal use or school use. One finds them making tables, chairs, 
office-desks, cabinets, porch swings, writing-desks, book-cases, 
piano benches, medicine cabinets, towel-racks, easels for relief 
maps, shoe-shine boxes, benches, etc. For the play-grounds the 
shops have constructed in certain cases giant-strides, horizontal 
bars, teeter-boards, flag staffs, basket-ball and volley-ball ap- 
paratus, together with tables and benches for the outdoor 
luncheons. Certain of the play-ground apparatus observed, as 
for example, that at School No. 2, possess a solidity and dura- 
bility that is often lacking in the output of our commercial 
houses. At one of the schools, the students in the manual train- 
ing shop were engaged in making an elaborate play-ground slide, 
ladder and all, of maple and ash. All this is real work under real 
shop conditions, since it is turning out a product that is to be 
of service. 

A rather unusual form of training, — unusually superior I 
should say, — was found at two elementary schools. At each of 
these, the upper grade boys in the carpentry class had con- 
structed a complete portable three-room cottage, of a type very 
much used in the neighborhood of the school. When the building 
is sold it will be moved away from the school premises and the 
next carpentry class will continue its training by constructing 
another. One of these cottages was thirty-three by sixteen feet 
in size, with three rooms, two porches, six windows, three doors, 
shingled, glazed,' and painted. All the work was done by the 
grammar school grades. This is what we have termed the trans- 
fer of a real work situation to the school premises for training 



44 CHAPTER HI. 

purposes. When such a practical task can lie at the foundation 
of the architectural planning, the mechanical drawing, the studies 
of mechanical relations, etc., no better form of carpentry train- 
ing can be devised. In such training, San Antonio has about 
reached the high water mark of excellence. Work of this same 
high type, lying close to the vocation itself needs also to be in- 
troduced into the two high school manual training courses, for 
those who wish to specialize in this general field. 

On the basis of such practical foundation, what desirable 
studies of a technical nature are given? To begin with, there 
is a very fully developed course in mechanical drawing given in 
both of the high schools. It is very closely related with the 
work in the shops. During the past year mechanical drawing 
has been introduced into the seventh or highest grade in the 
elementary school, and is being developed in connection with the 
manual training work of the boys. This elementary course needs 
to be under the full control of the manual training department 
rather than a general elementary arts department. It is not 
art primarily, although the aesthetic considerations of design 
should enter fully. It is primarily a technical shop subject, 
needed for guidance of shop labors, and should not under any 
circumstances risk divorce from the shop by putting it in the 
hands of another department. For the girls of. the seventh grade 
the work should be different from that of the boys and directed 
by the household arts department. 

Other technical matters are mathematics and science. In 
the elementary grades most of the elementary science that should 
be taught has not yet been developed. It should be taken in 
hand, however. Perhaps most of the arithmetic needed by 
mechanics is given in the arithmetic course. In the high school 
the boys in training for mechanical occupations are compelled 
to take two and one-half years of algebra and demonstrational 
geometry, and two years of any science that they may happen 
to choose. There are no regulations that will keep them from 
choosing zoology and botany, neither of which can be of any 
particular vocational service. If they choose physics and chem- 
istry, many things will be introduced that are of service ; many 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 45 

things, that can never be of any service ; many things needed are 
not introduced ; and all of it is given out of relation to the practi- 
cal situations into which science enters. While all students should 
have general preliminary over-views in perhaps most or all of 
the usual high school sciences, when it comes to the detailed in- 
tensive work of the sort which one does when one gives a full 
year to a science, most of this should take a definite functional 
point of view. If we were to say that the science as now taught 
possesses fifty percent value for the boys in mechanical train- 
ing, we should be perhaps sufficiently liberal in our estimate. 
The science work for these boys needs to be completely over- 
hauled and reorganized. 

On the side of the algebra and geometry for mechanics, 
something can be said ; especially for the geometry. Most of 
the necessary geometric relations should be developed in the 
mechanical drawing classes rather than in the demonstrational 
geometry classes. After deducting this part it is probable that 
the high school mathematics as at present organized is, most of 
it, of relatively low value even for mechanics. If they reach 
that level of the work when they use handbooks, formulae, and 
need to make algebraic reductions of these formulae, then they 
need some algebra. All that they need, however, for this work 
can be taught in half a year. The other year represents waste, 
— unless they have decided to go on to a technological institu- 
tion where the shop work will require a fuller knowledge of 
mathematics. For such relatively few individuals naturally the 
high school ought to give the preliminary portions of such 
higher mathematics. Because a few need a thing is no excuse 
for the city's forcing it upon all. To take an exactly parallel 
case, it would be pretty blind management that forced a full 
course in shorthand upon every student in the high school simply 
because a minor portion of them need it. For those boys whose 
education is ended at the high school stage, and who intend to 
enter mechanical industry, it is a perfectly safe estimate that the 
waste in the high school mathematics is not less than fifty per- 
cent. 



46 . CHAPTER HI. 

Mathematics for mechanics, and science for mechanics, 
need to be developed in much the same way as the school has 
developed drawing and design for mechanics. In this connection 
there is a sound educational principle that needs to be stated: 
The department which is responsible for the practical labors em- 
ployed in vocational training should be responsible for the teach- 
ing of that mathematics, science, drawing and design, etc., that 
is concerned in the guidance of those labors. In the ultimate vo- 
cational analysis it is the head-work that is more important 
than the hand-work. The vocational department should be re- 
sponsible for the head-work of the vocation as well as the hand- 
work of the vocation. If delegated to general workers, it should 
be in the sense that there are certain teachers who do work for 
different vocational departments, but who while working for any 
particular department will take the point of view fully of 
that department. A teacher of mathematics, for example, might 
be sufficiently versatile to take the point of view of the com- 
mercial department while teaching commercial arithmetic to 
commercial students ; to take the point of view of mechanics 
when teaching mathematics to prospective mechanical workers ; 
to take the point of view of household workers when teaching 
the necessary mathematics to these ; to take the civic point of 
view when teaching the mathematical and economic relationships 
of civic problems. The principle would apply in the same man- 
ner to the teaching of art and design, of science, and of social 
studies. 

On the side of social studies in the training for mechanical 
vocations, the schools are doing practically nothing. The study 
of labor conditions as these are found distributed geographically 
over the surface of the globe, or as they have been historically 
developed during the past two or three centuries, is not given. 
There should be, however, a strong and fully developed course 
in Industrial History. The subject is very large, very interest- 
ing and highly profitable, in this age of industrial misunder- 
standing, when the workers need to know the basis of industrial 
democracy. There should also be an equally full course in in- 
dustrial geography, showing the industrial stresses and strains 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 47 

of the present. These two studies would necessarily include 
most of the industrial problems faced by workers in the field of 
mechanical industry, and faced by the community in general in 
the regulation of industry. Some of the things to be covered in 
such social vocational studies are : the development of mechnical 
inventions, the development of the factory system, the growth of 
corporations, labor organizations, industrial insurance, employ- 
er's liability, the relation of wages to production, etc. More 
specifically it should take up the growth of the manufacture 
of steel, of lumber, of furniture, the growth of railroads, railroad 
regulation, etc., etc. If the thing looks difficult as compared with 
the safe and lazy teaching of the labor struggles of ancient 
Rome between plebian and patrician, it is largely because we 
have not yet collected for our use, a proper body of informational 
materials to be used. 

On the side of practical application certain further develop- 
ments seem desirable. The carpentry classes might take care 
of certain portions of the building repair and building construc- 
tion on the school grounds. The school board should never hire 
work done when it can be done by pupils in training for educa- 
tional purposes. Repairs to buildings and equipment, for ex- 
ample, last year amounted to over $20,000. In looking over the 
records of the superintendent of buildings and grounds, one finds 
such items as the following: New fence needed south of front 
yard. Calcimining needed in the north corridor. Black-boards 
need to be re-slated. Walks are needed around the old build- 
ing. Inside blinds in need of repair. Fence should be built upon 
the west side. Walls of class-rooms should be re-tinted. Desks 
and shades are in need of repair. Fences need to be re-set. 
Putting up new black-boards. Repairing plaster in Room No. 5. 
Fixing the cellar so water will not seep in. Re-varnishing 
the school seats and desks. Twelve yard fences are needed very 
much. Repair of window casings. Glass needed for windows 
and transoms. Need a ladder for trimming trees. Need a new 
and higher fence.' Trees need trimming. Bat entrances should 
be stopped in both buildings. Fences need re-painting. Two 
new windows need to be opened in the small buildings. Doors 



48 CHAPTER III. 

need repairing and re-painting. Screens are needed for the 
south rooms. Ward-robe door and Venetian blinds in need of 
repair. Need a map cabinet in the upper hall. A gate is needed 
t j the boys yard. Repairs to curb and to the iron fence. Window 
cords need replacing. Doors needed for the toilet. All wooden 
buildings need painting. Latches and locks in all buildings need 
attention. Cement floors should be painted. Screens for toilets 
should be higher. Hallway floors should be re-laid. Porch 
needs to be re-built. Need new outbuilding. Double desks 
should be cut in two. Repair of teacher's desk and two chairs. 
Leaky window casings need attention. Tool sheds should be en- 
larged. Need 161 feet of new black-board. Steps need repair. 
New ceiling in cloak-rooms of old buildings. Picture moulding 
needed in the main building. Mouldings on black-boards need 
painting, etc., etc. 

Out of so great wealth of opportunity, the shop department 
ought to be able to find certain things that can be done for 
training purposes. It must be kept in mind always, however, 
that the primary ends of using this fundamental practical labor 
is training, — training to understanding and appreciation of struc- 
tural matters, more than training for skill. Such work cannot 
be educationally justified except as it is filled as full as possible 
with the intellectual and aesthetic content of mechanical draw- 
ing, structural science, structural art and design, structural 
mathematics, etc. The head-training, so to speak, must loom 
larger than the hand-training. The hand-training, however, is 
a necessary foundation for the head-training. The two must go 
together. Mind-training cannot be solidly accomplished except 
as one's feet are kept on the ground of practical reality. 

Here again we must mention that labor organizations should 
very carefully consider the entire situation before making objec- 
tion to valid educational policy. Understanding and appreciation 
of and desire for proper housing conditions constitute the source 
of prosperity to the building trades. So long as people are 
ignorant or unappreciative or satisfied with poor housing con- 
ditions, they will have little work to give to the building trades. 
When they have placed high their standards of housing condi- 



EDUCATION FOR VO C ATION 49 

tions, they will have much work to give to the building trades 
In proportion as this appreciation exhibits itself in the building 
of a more attractive city, the more will San Antonio thrive as a 
city of homes, and the more will the building trades thrive. For 
building trades organizations to prohibit the training that will 
create a higher type of building demand for the sake of the 
more immediate profits is like killing the goose that laid the 
golden egg. 

If it is objected that students cannot do good enough work, 
it must be observed that if their work is not good enough for the 
schools, then they are not sufficiently educated to turn out into 
the world of economic industry. Simply their education is 
incomplete. Responsibility rests on the schools to perfect it. 
And the having of such real work to do offers the best possible 
educational opportunity. The school city may also object 
that such work is slow. If well-done, it usually is. The city 
must exercise foresight, and plan a long way ahead. Educa- 
tional opportunities must not be thrown away merely because it 
is easier to throw them away than to utilize them. Such action 
is an evasion of responsibility, and done merely because the 
work would be difficult. It is difficult, it is true. The world 
presents no tasks more difficult than those of real education. 
To direct a group of embryo workmen, using valuable material 
that must not be wasted, turning out a product that is to be 
permanent, intellectualizing all the processes as the work pro- 
ceeds so as to build at the same time permanent educational 
structures within the boys, so to speak — all this constitutes 
a form of labor immensely more difficult than the labors of 
the usual construction foreman who is looking to but one-half 
as much product and is getting that half from men already 
trained. If the community is wise, however, it is not going 
to permit our profession to shirk responsibility merely because 
it is difficult. It will not permit us to palm off a combination 
of book-work and play-shop work as "just as good," when really 
it is an inferior and ineffective substitute. 



50 CHAPTER HI. 

GARDENING, AGRICULTURE, ETC. 

Texas is and of necessity must always be primarily an 
agricultural state. The prosperity of the cities will always 
be dependent upon the prosperity of the agriculture of the 
region which they serve as distributing centers. A moderate 
fraction of San Antonio people at the present time are gardeners 
or agriculturists ; and there must be another considerable num- 
ber in the schools who will leave the city and enter into such 
occupations. For social or community co-operation between 
city and country, it is highly desirable that the inhabitants of the 
city in an agricultural region should have some appreciation 
and understanding of those labors and those conditions upon 
which they are ultimately dependent. A further reason for 
teaching gardening in the city schools is the fact that the City 
of San Antonio is and always ought to be, for obvious reasons, 
spread rather sparsely over the city area, with large intervening 
spaces given over to grass and trees and shrubbery. 

City of homes is San Antonio ; and upon its success in 
being an attractive city of homes must in large measure depend 
its future prosperity, with its delightful winter climate, its 
perennial green in garden and park, and with its never-ceasing 
breezes during the warmer months, the city is sure to be sought 
in ever-increasing numbers by a class of people of the type who 
now spend their winters and their years of retirement so fully 
in Florida and California. Success in this respect depends upon 
the city's presenting an attractive appearance throughout. Much 
of the city does not now present a face of this character, for the 
reason that the yards, the gardens, the vacant lots, the strips 
of green along the streets, the trees, the shrubbery, etc., have, 
over large areas, been neglected, and have been permitted to 
remain in an unsightly condition. In a city of such promise, in 
the case of things which could be so easily corrected, a vigorous 
campaign of education is needed. The results to the city can- 
not but pay for the expense many times over. Where nature is 
herself so bountiful and beneficent a relatively small amount 
of labor on man's part often brings forth results of an incom- 
mensurably large character. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATIO N 51 

The need of such a campaign is at present being voiced 
by the San Antonio Real Estate Exchange. The realty men 
have recently been discussing the organization of vacant-lot 
clubs such as are now found in numerous cities. There is no 
reason, they say, why San Antonio should not be the first 
Texas city to organize for a move of this kind. To quote from 
an article in one of the local papers: 

"Minneapolis, Minn., is dotted with gardens until the 
vegetable peddler is finding it difficult to stay in business. 
Long stretches of vacant property, high in grass and weeds and 
littered with tin cans, rusty stove-pipes and general refuse of 
the neighborhood, are not in evidence there. The city authorities 
are behind the movement for gardens. Minneapolis is rapidly 
being transformed into a city of flowers. 

"San Antonio has many advantages over Minneapolis. 
Mild climate here makes flowers and shrubs flourish nearly the 
year round. One rule of the vacant lot club is that the first 
four or five feet of a lot be planted in flowers or shrubs. Beyond 
that practically anything can be grown in the way of vegetables, 
etc." 

"The importance of the garden in the income of the family 
is great," said government expert Hand. "There is no invest- 
ment of the same time and labor which will pay greater cash 
dividends than the home garden, and every family can have one. 
The returns in better health, in outdoor exercise in man's most 
ancient employment and from a food supply made better by the 
addition of the right vegetables are in addition to a considerable 
monthly saving of family expense." 

The Secretary o*f the Texas Industrial Congress in a letter 
to the San Antonio Real Estate Exchange announces : 

"It is our intention to offer approximately $500 in cash 
prizes for the best results in school gardening, and the same 
amount for results by individuals. Contestants will probably 
be required to cultivate not less than three vegetables ; though 
they may cultivate as many more as they desire. There will 



52 CHAPTER III. 

be no restrictions as to the size of the garden plots. This will 
enable boys and girls to make use of back yards no matter how 
small, as well as of vacant lots. 

"It is hoped that the schools generally will take an active 
part in this work, and that each one will make an entry in the 
school garden contest. Then we want if possible to have the 
pupils in these schools make individual entries of home gardens 
of their own, so they may make practical application of the in- 
formation and lessons in gardening learned at school. Super- 
vision and inspection of the work done will be had as far as 
possible through teachers and school superintendents." 

Experience teaches that the fundamental gardening work 
needed for training does not transfer easily to the school 
premises. The school-garden is not usually very successful. 
Generally there is too little space for individual gardens that 
are large enough for the pupils to take seriously. In the spring 
they are too much like play-gardens ; during the summer they 
grow up with weeds ; and the work too often comes to naught. 
They are necessarily more or less exposed ; and when the work 
is well done and they are successful, they are so often ravaged 
by vandals, which destroys the pupil's interest. The school 
garden probably has a place only for demonstration and labora- 
tory purposes, except in so far as the gardening relates to the 
permanent decorative arrangements of the school grounds in the 
way of flowers and shubbery. These latter naturally should be 
planned, planted and cared for by the children themselves for 
educational purposes. This opportunity should not be thrown 
away by giving it over to the janitor. Outside of this school 
landscape gardening which also should be used largely for de- 
monstration purposes, perhaps only a very small school garden 
is needed. 

The fundamental aspects of the garden training should 
be at the homes. There is plenty of space. San Antonio aver- 
ages only five individuals to the acre. The city is not densely 
populated. Houses are well removed from each other, and back 
yards, side yards, front yards, sufficient for flowers, shrubbery 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION , 53 

and vegetables are the rule everywhere. There is no lack of 
opportunity for training in gardening. 

The plan of work to be pursued may well be something 
like the following : The schools should take Up the task of land- 
scape gardening for the school premises. The art, science, and 
physical training departments should lead in the work ; the art 
department to take care of design and aesthetic effects ; the 
science department to take care of the technical, plant-growth 
considerations ; and the physical education department to see 
that the gardening does not encroach unduly upon the necessarily 
large play spaces of the school grounds and to see that the 
shrubbery and trees are not planted so as to obstruct the light 
of the windows. The schools would need to study and experiment 
as to the kinds of flowers and shubbery and trees that can be 
profitably grown in San Antonio for the purpose. They should 
search everywhere through the flora of milder climates so as 
to formulate as long a list of possibilities as can be found. 
This is largely a matter for the science teachers. While this is 
being done the classes in the art department will be designing 
the aesthetic arrangements to be employed in the school grounds, 
— along the walks, in the corners of the yard, along the fences, 
arbors, trellises, hedges, etc. It is a rich field for the teaching 
of applied art. Finally the school will have a small kitchen 
garden in which will be raised as large a variety of vegetables 
as can profitably be grown in the San Antonio region. Both the 
landscape gardening and the kitchen garden will be taken care 
of co-operatively by the classes and not divided up into little 
individual portions as is so often the case with school gardens. 
The purpose of all of the school gardening is but to give the 
preliminary ideas and suggestions for the home gardening which 
is to constitute the real training in the matter. The school 
garden suggests what can be grown, what processes have to 
be performed, shows the best ways of doing the work, shows 
to all the pupils how difficulties are to be overcome, furnishes 
material for the laboratory work that needs to accompany the 
teaching of the gardening science, etc. In a word, the school gar- 
den is a small fraction of the fundamental field of gardening that 



54 ^_ CHAPTER HI. 

i- transferred to the school to be used as a foundation for the 
supplemental training- in the science, design, and other matters 
of technical information, which are then taken back to the home 
gardens for that serious application which alone accomplishes 
the education of the children. Their fundamental training must 
be in connection with these home gardens. The front and side 
yards will be given to grass, flowers, and shrubbery, ideas and 
methods having been contributed by the work at the school. 
In the back yard or in the vacant lots can be developed the funda- 
mental training in kitchen gardening. 

Not only would we urge the introduction of this form of 
training- into San Antonio in very generous measure, but w T e are 
willing further to state that the city cannot afford not to de- 
velop such gardening. The prosperity of the city depends in 
larger measure than is the case with the majority of cities upon 
its development into a city of flowers and shrubbery, of pleasing 
homes and gardens, of pleasant avenues and parks and park- 
ways. The properly guided labors of 10,000 school children 
can accomplish a great deal immediately on the side of home, 
sireet, and civic beautification. But even better than this, the 
training will develop an appreciation for civic beauty and an 
understanding of the problems entering into it ; so that after 
the schools have turned out children so trained, for a decade or 
two the adult generation of the city will be filled with men and 
women who are appreciative of the possibilities of making San 
Antonio, and of keeping it, a garden city. So profuse must be 
the reward to the city for development of this field of educational 
activity that the city ought to be pretty generous in developing 
the gardening work of the schools. Special teachers should 
be employed who would be expected to be in charge of the work 
twelve months in the year, teaching at the schools for a portion 
of the lime and keeping in contact with all of the home gardens 
of the pupils for another part of the time. Where the work is 
being wisely developed the immediate results are more than 
enough to pay all of the bills, not to mention the ultimate and 
abiding results lor a city m having its population appreciative 
arid intelligent in the matter. 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 55 

In connection with the discussion of gardening teaching 
as a basis for city improvement one should also consider the 
desirability of introducing instruction in cement construction and 
of introducing such practical matters as the building of fences 
into the carpentry course of the elementary and high schools. 
The city cannot be highly attractive during the winter until 
it is possible to walk along the streets and to enter the dwell- 
ings, from almost anywhere without wading through mud of un- 
certain depth and of a rather remarkable tenacity. The general 
population appears to need some teaching as to the possibilities 
of brick, cement, and asphalt construction. Improvement can 
come only as appreciation and understanding are developed. It 
can come economically only as people are informed as to costs, 
materials, methods of work, which will mean the ability on the 
part of large numbers to build their own home walks of brick 
or cement. The schools need to understand the desirability of 
giving short intensive courses like cement construction using 
the opoprtunities at the school for building school walks or 
repairing walks for demonstration purposes in the way of ma- 
terials, methods, etc., and then under the direction of the shop 
teacher, care being taken that no mistakes be made, nor material 
wasted, let the boy's education be continued in such home cement 
construction as happens to be needed. If labor unions will con- 
sider the matter in all of its bearings they will find that they 
have more to gain than to lose from such a policy. The amount 
that can be done for training purposes is necessarily relatively 
small. The development of an understanding and appreciation 
of such work in the community through education will create 
a much larger demand for such work on the part of the trades 
as more than to overbalance the amount that can be done for 
training purposes ; and moreover, located as San Antonio is, 
increase in the city's attractiveness through improvement means 
city growth and increased labors for the trades organizations. 
Further, it is the sons of the tradesmen who will most benefit 
from this training. 

Portions of San Antonio are not attractive because of the 
nature of the fences about the usually fairly generous home lots. 



56 CHAPTER HI. 

In most cases the fences about the schools are altogether un- 
attractive in design and finish; and often are in a state of dis- 
reputable disrepair. In a reading of the minutes of the school 
board it was found that the board had taken the position in cer- 
tain cases that the classes in carpentry in the school should under- 
take the repair of certain of the school fences. Looked at from 
every point of view the suggestion is a thoroughly sound one. 
In return for providing accommodations, equipment, tools, teach- 
ers, etc., for training in carpentry, the board should require that 
the classes in this subject should take care of as much of the car- 
pentry repair work on fences and buildings as can be done for 
training purposes. The art department in connection with the 
mechanical drawing department should take the matter of fence 
design in hand. The possibilities on the side of attractive de- 
sign are very numerous. As a field of practical training relating 
to the aesthetic aspects of construction work, it offers large op- 
portunities to a well-informed art department. After the designs 
are made, the shop department should take up the work of carry- 
ing out the labors on the side of cement foundations, cement 
posts, the metal work, the woodwork, the finishing, the painting, 
etc. This work done at the schools should be, however, regarded 
simply as a small piece of the large fundamental training oppor- 
tunity that has been transferred to the school premises for edu- 
cational purposes. It is the home fence building, fence repair, 
etc., that should, so far as possible, be looked upon as constitut- 
ing the basic portion of the training. The shop teachers need, 
therefore, to be employed for the twelve months in the year and 
to keep in constant contact with the home training labors, in this 
as in other fields. 

Of practical matters, there is just one other thing that we 
would recommend developing in the shops of San Antonio 
as early as conditions will permit, namely, printing. It is a 
manual training activity valuable for both boys and girls. It 
represents a trade field entered by both men and women. It is 
a fundamental activity that provides a foundation for a large 
amount of technical training, — drawing and design, color re- 
lations, mathematical computations, practical commercial activi- 



EDUCATION FOR VOCATION 57 

ties, composition as related to the school paper, etc. The work 
can be made to pay fully for itself. The press, for example, can 
print arithmetic drill lesson papers, sentences for grammatical 
analysis, special reading exercises used in the primary grades, 
outlines of work for history, geography, science, etc. ; manuals, 
recipes, etc., for shop kitchen and sewing room ; invitations and 
programs relating to social functions, etc. 

Where are the schools to find time for all this expansion 
of training both technical and social. It is to be had by eliminat- 
ing present waste. In previous paragraphs we have eluded to 
waste in the teaching of certain portions of mathematics, science, 
and social studies. In later chapters we shall point to the desira- 
bility of eliminating certain wastes on the side of English gram- 
mar, foreign languages, history and literature. It must be re- 
membered too that in proportion as education is made active, it 
can be made more effective. When fully organized, students 
can go over the ground more rapidly and the results once at- 
tained are relatively permanent, and less in need of reviews and 
drills and examination wastes. These are largely necessitated 
by the unrelated book teaching. Also waste due to the short 
school day and the short school week in the upper grades and 
high school can be utilized when work can be made less sedentary 
and therefore healthy and stimulating, socially and physically. 
There are serious problems involved in the introduction of such 
training ; but the question of finding the time is not one of these. 



58 CHAPTER IV. 

Chapter IV. 

EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 

Reading, writing, arthmetic, and the preliminary under- 
standing of geography and history are necessary in every de- 
partment of human affairs, citizenship among the rest. So far 
as San Antonio is taking care of these primordial systems of 
knowledge, she is taking care of the training for citizenship. 
For the moment, however, we take all these matters for granted. 
Our purpose here is to examine those elements of education that 
are chosen, or that should be chosen for the purpose of training 
one to the understanding of the problems, duties, rights, and re- 
sponsibilities of the citizen. 

The basic training for citizenship has always been through 
observation and participation. In the early days of our republic 
this was sufficiently simple. Wealth was not abundant. The citi- 
zens therefore were relatively equal in their political power. 
Communities were small. It was possible for everybody to be 
acquainted with what was going on in the community. 

Public opinion and the simple governmental machinery of 
that day brought about a reasonable efficiency in governmental 
matters. Any wide-awake man or woman received most of the 
necessary civic training through active observation and participa- 
tion in the general community affairs. There appeared to be 
nothing additional for the schools to do. For this very good 
reason little or nothing was done. 

But today, civic conditions are changed. And the work of 
the schools must be correspondingly changed. At present, social 
competing interests are not bounded by the town limits. They 
are nation-wide. Their affairs are so ramifying and complex, 
information concerning social groups is so inaccessible, that the 
problems relating to the general control of our various social 
classes of greatly unequal powers are in fact our gravest national 
problems. In a democracy where the ultimate solution of all of 
these problems must grow naturally out of public enlightenment, 
there must first be public enlightenment. The task of the schools 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 59 

is to take up our thousand problems one by one, and round out the 
information of our young citizens concerning each of them. 
Their fundamental education must still be through observation 
and participation in practical community affairs ; but the schools 
must supplement heavily. 

Here as in the vocational field, there can be no divorce 
between the practical fundamental portions of the training, and 
the scholastic, supplementary, theoretical portions. One learns 
civic and social co-operation through entering into those co- 
operations. One best develops the necessary knowledge, points 
of view, and standards of judgment as one needs to use this 
knowledge and this judgment. 

The schools need to find as many practical civic things 
to do as they can. Then in connection with each of these, they 
should richly supplement with information and social inspiration 
from the fields of history, geography, economics, industrial 
studies, social studies, etc. The San Antonio schools provide a 
good illustration for the purpose. Some time ago a practical 
anti-mosquito campaign was undertaken by the community, 
enlisting the co-operation of the children of the various schools. 
Throughout the city the children undertook the tasks of clear- 
ing up the pools of water, of removing the tin cans from vacant 
lets, of burning weeds, of pouring kerosene upon standing water, 
screening cisterns, etc., etc. This elimination of the mosquito 
was undertaken as a general civic community task. Through 
participation in it, the children laid the fundamental foundations 
for education on this topic. Taking practical activities as the 
foundation for supplementary studies, the schools took up the 
science and the social aspects of the problem. In every school 
building at the present time, except those just recently finished, 
there is to be found a large wall chart in color devised and drawn 
by a student in the high school which shows in a clear magnified 
form the anatomical characteristics of the different harmful 
species of mosquito. It shows also the entire life-history of 
the mosquito, from the egg through each stage to the final 
adult form. The school library then contains further related 
science for the pupils, written in easy, readable form. This 



60 CHAPTER IV. 

science deals with the nature, life-history, and habits of mosqui- 
toes ; with the nature and life-history of the malarial germs ; the 
way they are introduced into the system by the mosquitoes ; the 
way they multiply ; the way their multiplication in the blood 
affects the human organism ; and the way in which these malarial 
germs in the blood are destroyed. The reading enters also into 
the geographical and seasonal distribution of mosquitoes, with 
modes of destruction, and methods of preventing their develop- 
ment. 

The scholastic aspects of the training need to be carried 
beyond the technical, scientific considerations, to the social ones 
as well. In connection with this mosquito campaign, the class 
might well be provided with statistical facts concerning the pre- 
valence of malaria furnished from records of health departments. 
Then, using outline maps of the United States, they might very 
profitably make what could be called a mosquito-malarial map 
of the United States similar in technique to the shaded rainfall 
maps found in the geographies. Such a map would show the 
regions of large danger and the regions of little danger. It 
would be a study not only of a certain civic problem, but would 
also be a rational mode of studying geography. Using an out- 
line map of the world, it would be possible from figures at hand, 
to draw such a shaded map of the world, showing the regions 
of greatest danger for North Europeans, in the Amazon River 
valley, in central Africa, etc., and showing the regions of practi- 
cally no danger in mountainous regions of high altitude 
and in the colder climates. From the facts at hand, an advanced 
high school class might also calculate the economic losses from 
morbidity and mortality in states in our country and perhaps in 
certain foreign countries, thus forcing home the economical 
relations of imperfect control of this particular community prob- 
lem. 

The social aspects of the study could not be complete until 
ii had been looked at historically. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes 
have in fact played a large role in the history of human affairs. 
For example, in reading the northern invasions of Italy during 
Medieval and early Modern time the most striking single thing 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 61 

discernable is the fact that no northern army reaching the Italian 
Campania ever returned home again. In the language of James 
Eryce, these armies melted away as certainly and as silently as 
the snows of the Appenines in summer. 

The malaria-carrying mosquito did the work. In the same 
way can much of the history of southern climates in their rela- 
tions with the people of the north be explained. Thus and. thus 
only can we explain the uninhabitability for Europeans and the 
lack of development of central Africa and central South America, 
Written in proper human fashion, based upon a solid foundation 
of fundamental community activities, such social studies can be 
made intensely interesting and highly profitable. 

This extended illustration is designed to show that in connec- 
tion with the teaching of any civic topic there ought to be : 
first, a series of practical activities in which those being ed- 
ucated can participate ; second, there should be a wealth of tech- 
nical, scientific information relating to such practical social 
activities ; and third, there should be an equal abundance of 
social information relating to the problem. The thing cannot 
be adequately taught if any one of the three factors is omitted. 
At present in San Antonio all three are mostly omitted. There 
is scarcely any civic teaching done. 

Examples of civic topics that ought to be taken up in 
this threefold way in the schools of San Antonio are : City 
beautification ; city street paving ; street cleaning ; the smoke 
nuisance ; city water supply ; city milk supply ; the city food 
supply in general ; fire losses and fire insurance rates ; city parks ; 
the economic value of birds ; the sanitation of public buildings, 
schools, churches, theaters, etc. ; vocational survey of the city ; 
the care of the unfortunate ; the public utilities of the city ; uses 
of vacant lots ; savings banks ; child labor ; municipal social 
centers ; the municipal civic forum ; cost of maintaining each 
city department ; city dust ; the municipal board of health ; the 
possible civic uses of the San Antonio river; the civic prob- 
lems of the school city, etc., etc. These are only suggestive of 
the kinds of problems that should be looked into. Committtees 
of responsible men and women of San Antonio, both lay and pro- 



62 CHAPTER IV. 

fessional, should draw up a long list including all important 
social problems needed to be understood by the well-informed 
citizen of San Antonio. The community is paying the money 
to get the teaching done ; the community should say, in as defi- 
nite a way as it can, what it wants covered. It is scarcely fair 
to the schools to be set to the performance of a task and then not 
told what is wanted. The school people are paid to find out, one 
says. But suppose they do not? Are they to be permitted to 
go on just as if they had done so? Does not the responsibility 
fall upon their employers the moment the school people fail ? 

After a community committee has formulated a list of 
topics, it should aid the schools in every possible way to get the 
facts bearing on each of them. Mere talk by the teacher and 
pupils about street paving, or street maintenance without any 
facts beyond their casual observations may add nothing to what 
all really know in the beginning ; and may be — usually is — a 
total waste of time and money. There is needed an abundance 
of technical facts relating to the situation. And the facts must 
be significant. To illustrate : 

What has San Antonio been paying for the maintenance 
of streets? Is the amount large or small? For the fiscal year 
0^* 1912, the amount paid was ninety-nine cents per capita. This 
fact taken alone is meaningless. It does not show whether high 
or low ; whether the city is doing well or ill by its streets. It 
can be given meaning by comparison, however. Table V shows 
the comparative cost per capita of street maintenance in southern 
cities : 

Table V. 

Annual Per Capita Expenditures for Street Maintenance, 1912, 

Nashville $ 2.79 Augusta $ 2.76 

Tampa 2.10 Memphis 2.04 

Houston ', 2.04 Savannah 1.71 

Atlanta 1.63 Dallas 1.55 

Galveston 1.54 Jacksonville 1.53 

Austin 1.51 New Orleans 1.50 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 63 

Macon 1.43 Shreveport 1.36 

Montgomery 1.36 Mobile 1.33 

Ft. Worth _ 1.17 El Paso 1.10 

Muskogee 1.07 Birmingham 1.02 

SAN ANTONIO 99 Charleston 85 

Little Rock 63 Oklahoma City 63 



With the facts from this list of cities before a class, the 
ninety-nine cents per capita paid for street maintenance in San 
Antonio acquires significance. One can see how well the city 
is taking care of this function, as compared with Houston, Dal- 
las, Galveston, Austin, Ft. Worth, El Paso, and other cities. 
Or, if one would look at it in another way, one can see the 
economy of San Antonio as compared with the wasteful ex- 
travagance of some of the other cities. Naturally the interpre- 
tation must square with the facts ; but there must first be facts 
before there can be interpretation, explanation, or teaching. 

A second civic question bearing on this topic, is : What 
is the price paid in each of these cities per thousand square 
feet for street paving of the type now going on in San Antonio ? 
Is San Antonio paying a high price per thousand square feet, 
a medium price, or a low price, as compared with the practice in 
other cities? One cannot answer until one has the facts for 
San Antonio, and for each of many other cities. Real civics of 
any vital worth cannot be taught the youth of the city until 
such facts as these are accessible. With solid facts before one 
discussion and explanation of reasons and causes can be made 
profitable. 

But facts cannot be merely gathered out of the air. Public 
spirited committees of citizens' organizations not only should 
draw up the list of things the people of the community need 
to understand, but they should actively assist in gathering the 
facts to be used. The adult citizens need the facts for their 
thinking as fully as the schools need them for their teaching. 
Public spirited men of the community can get great quantities 
of facts that are relatively inaccessible to the teachers. 



64- CHAPTER IV. 



Several kinds of things are now being done in San x\ntonio 
which appear to be designed for training for citizenship. For- 
mal civics, so-called, is taught in the last half of the seventh 
grade. One class visited was reciting in a more or less lifeless 
uninterested way upon the textbook. They gave about three 
minutes to a discussion of the functions of the governor ; then 
another three minutes to the lieutenant-governor ; about the 
same length of time to the secretary of state ; and so on through 
the list of comptroller, state treasurer, attorney-general, and 
superintendent of public instruction. It was not a discussion of 
these officials and their duties as they are found in the State of 
Texas, but a discussion of these officials in the abstract as they 
are found in states in general. The whole thing was covered in 
fourteen minutes. In the recitation the pupils did not get much 
of anything correct. The teacher then in each case lectured by 
way of giving the facts. She did nothing more than to cover 
the brief textbook facts. So far as the reading or discussion 
touched upon things which the pupils knew anything about at 
first hand, they seemed to be interested, and they seemed to have 
ideas ; but most of the things covered did not relate to anything 
within their experience. After six more minutes given to a dis- 
cussion of the judiciary, the class was dismissed. The whole 
thing was mostly a waste of time. The so-called facts of the 
recitation were not real facts for the students, since they had no 
real substance. The pupils get a necessary preliminary view of 
the governmental mechanism. This is good so far as it goes. 
But it is like a class in manual training that confines its term's 
work to merely examining the work bench and the tools. A 
necessary step, it is, but they must get much beyond a mere 
preliminary view of the mechanism. 

Another class in civics was visited in the high school. It 
was using and reciting upon Fiske's Civil Government in the 
United States as a textbook. This text was first published 
twenty-five years ago. It represents an outworn and ancient 
mode of civic thought ; and moreover, it never did apply in any 
sufficient measure to the civic problems in Texas, and almost 
not at all to the problems of the citizens of San Antonio. Fol- 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 65 

lowing the ancient pattern, the students were discussing the vague 
abstractions there set down concerning the functions of the presi- 
dent. The things discussed were without substance, without 
significance, without relation to anything in their experience or 
that of the teacher of the class. They were discussing it and 
reciting upon it merely because it was set down in the book. 
It is pseudo-supplementary education that fails of its purpose 
because it is in no wise related to the fundamental situations 
in which the pupils move and think and act. It looks so much 
like real education that everybody seems to have accepted it as 
such. Let one compare it, however, with a course in civic train- 
ing made up of civic problems of the type referred to in the 
illustration given above, one can then easily distinguish the false 
from the true. One wonders what supervisory officials are doing 
that they do not instantly detect and set about correcting such 
sham education. 

Civic training in the schools can be healthy and virile only 
as it reflects things that are being striven for by the civic leaders 
of the community. The civic work within the schools should be 
a part, an integral, organic part, of the total civic striving of the 
community. In proportion as the school isolates itself from the 
'community and finds mere textbook matters of study that are 
in no wise related to the conditions within the city, the school 
work drifts from its proper moorings and becomes use- 
less. Only in proportion as it keeps its feet upon the solid earth 
of community problems, does it remain educationally worth 
while. 

In addition to the ways mentioned, another method of 
keeping the school civic work grounded in reality is to make 
the schools, as fully as possible, the civic forums of the city, — 
especially the high school. For example, when the topic of street 
paving is being considered in the high school civics class, the 
chairman of the committee of the city council which has charge 
of this particular aspect of civics work should be invited to dis- 
cuss the whole situation before the high school, meeting as a 
body in the auditorium. When the subject of taxes is taken up, 
the chairman of the finance committee of the city council, the 



66 CHAPTER IV. 

city tax collector, the county tax collector, the chairman of the 
finance committee of the school board, etc., should be invited 
to discuss the problems of taxation in San Antonio before the 
high school classes. When community sanitation is the topic, 
then it is the board of health and its inspectors who have an op- 
portunity of disseminating necessary sanitary information. There 
is no civic function being performed but what is being trusted to 
somebody. Those to whom it is entrusted are the ones who in a 
democracy should feel responsible for keeping the general public 
enlightened as to their work. It is necessary for their own effect- 
iveness, and for the success of their labors in the community. 

The plan as sketched in the preceding paragraph is incom- 
plete, imperfect, and unworkable. If undertaken in a period 
of zeal, while it may be continued for a while, it probably can- 
not in any such form become permanent. The officials referred 
to under present conditions, will not and perhaps cannot take the 
matter sufficiently seriously. It may be done once in such a man- 
ner; but there is likely to be little thought of the continuance 
of the matter year after year, as a regular portion of the duties 
of the office. There is a feeling of the artificiality and the insub- 
stantiability of the thing. This is because of the relative artifi- 
ciality and isolation of school activities as at present conducted. 
Present teaching is so much in a vacuum that live men cannot 
seem to breathe naturally in any such atmosphere. The informa- 
tion that these men have should be for the whole community. 
Yet here within the school we have separated out only the chil- 
dren and youth of the community. Those to whom they should 
give it naturally and normally as a part of their serious func- 
tions, namely the adult leaders of the community, are not pres- 
ent at the school when these talks are made. These officials are 
not reporting to the men who are holding them responsible, but 
are reporting only to the children in a comparatively artificial 
situation. Now as a matter of fact these officials referred to can- 
not talk to the youth of the city in normal fashion if they are 
talking only to the youth of the city. They can talk normally to 
the youth of the city only as they are addressing the adult leaders 
of the city, their peers, those to whom they owe their responsibil- 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 67 

ity. Then as they talk to this adult portion of the community the 
children can hear and in this way can learn in a normal fashion. 
Youth must learn in large measure not from being addressed 
directly, but from listening to adulthood talking to adulthood. 
It is for youth one of the normal modes of participation in adult 
affairs. 

This being the case, civic education demands that there 
be meetings of adults where the youth of the city can attend, 
which are being addressed by the members of the board of health, 
the chairman of the council committees, the officials of the county 
and city, the leaders of every civic movement within the com- 
munity, etc. The high school and every school is in need of an 
auditorium large enough to seat at one time a large part of the 
school and a large part of the community. Here should meet 
regularly City Improvement Associations, Civic Leagues, Par- 
ent's Organizations, etc., to be addressed by leaders of community 
labors. The children and youth should then attend and listen 
tc these discussions in as full a degree as possible as a part 
of their necessary education. 

Auditoriums for such purposes cost money. But they can 
be paid for out of the savings to the city that can come from such 
civic enlightenment. 

When the things above recommended are accomplished, 
the fundamental civic activities of the community will have been 
brought into such close relation with the necessary scholastic 
activities that the latter cannot well drift from their moorings 
into mere irrelevancy and abstract nothingness. The debating 
societies will have something to debate that will be taken seri- 
ously and serve as the centers for the organization of large masses 
of technical, economical, historical, and geographical facts. The 
public speaking work can be given vitality by giving it serious 
aims. The composition classes can deal with the solid realities 
of the real world and less with the mere imaginative trifles. 
The comparisons of city with city, of state with state, that will 
be made necessary by such work will give the geography a 
vitality that at present it does not possess. And the history in 
showing how these various problems have grown up in San 



68 CHAPTER IV. 



Antonio, in Texas, in other states, in other countries, in other 
ages of the world, and how they have been solved under differ- 
ent conditions, — the history can be given vitality by giving it 
a useful work to do. At present so much of the history and geo- 
graphy hangs limp and loose and worthless merely because it 
consists of tissues of academic abstractions, related to nothing 
ifi man's present world. 

Mathematics too, can be given vitality. Economics is a 
branch of applied mathematics ; and in so far as civic problems 
are developed fully, they must be developed on their economic 
side. The street maintenance illustration shows that the basis of 
facts required for understanding must be of a mathematical sort. 
The same is equally true of taxation, insurance, management of 
public utilities, and of every other civic topic that may be studied. 
Civic teaching on its economic side must be as mathematical 
a study as engineering; though the mathematics will be only 
applied arithmetic. The quantity that is needed is large. 

The science work also, both in elementary and secondary 
schools can be vitalized. The anti-mosquito campaign referred 
to is a fair example. There is no better possible way of teach- 
ing the biological science relating to mosquitoes and to malarial 
germs, their life-histories, their relations to disease, and their 
other scientific relations. In the same way there is a great 
wealth of science necessary to a proper understanding of tree 
planting and tree care as an aspect of city beautification, of the 
city milk supply, the city water supply, the economic value of 
birds, the sanitation of public buildings, the disposal of garbage, 
city dust, etc., etc. When one views the wide range of science 
which people need to know in order to understand their actual 
problems, the tragic waste of opportunity represented by the 
present abstract science of the high school appears. We are not 
here denying the necessity for certain preliminary study of 
physics and chemistry, botany and zoology, physiography and 
physiology, etc.. by way of sketching the outlines of science 
needed as keys to interpretation of specific situations. We are 
saying that there is altogether too much time given to this pre- 
liminary study of these various abstract sciences, and practically 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP . 69 

a total neglect of the science that lies about one in concrete 
form on every hand. The facts that enter into these concrete 
situations near at hand are just as scientific, just as real, and of 
incalculably greater value to the people of the city. In my 
opinion, the tax-payers of the city should refuse to pay their 
money for science that cannot be demonstrated to be related to 
problems of men as these are found in the practical situations 
in which people find themselves ; and they should insist that 
all that is needed should be taught. This would not mean less 
science than is now taught ; it would mean more. It would not 
mean merely local science. The need of comparisons with con- 
ditions in other cities and countries, keeps the wide outlook. It 
would mean, however, that it would have to be anchored to and 
grow out of local needs before it could be justified. 

The educational problems here suggested are many and 
large. The educational responsibility, however, cannot be shifted 
merely because the problems represent work. They are at the 
present time being attacked and being solved in many cities. They 
are not things that can be solved by theorists. Nor can they be 
solved by one city and borrowed by another. Each city has its 
own peculiar set of problems, and the responsibility lies on the 
people of each city, both lay and professional, to work out the 
problems involved. It will require years. It must be a process 
of growth. Such problems should be introduced at once as can 
be introduced. Others should be added as it becomes possible. 
The studies will not be revolutionized in any sudden way ; but 
only changed gradually. The science work will be changed here 
and there so as to relate it more and more to the actual problems 
of the city. The historical materials will be chosen more and 
more for the purpose of showing the social background of 
present-day social problems. The geographical materials will 
be chosen more and more for similar purposes. The things 
of history and geography and other studies that are of only 
pieliminary value or which are of no value, will be given less and 
less time and will be gradually pushed into positions commensur- 
ate with their worth. Such a gradual reformulation of the work 
is the only kind of reformulation that can be healthy and that 



70 CHAPTER IV. 

can be permanent. An attempt to make changes too suddenly 
or changes of too great degree must necessarily result in a 
greater or less degree of demoralization. The rate of growth 
must depend in chief degree upon the width and strength of pro- 
fessional and social vision on the part of the supervisory workers 
in the school system ; superintendent, high school principal, ele- 
mentary school principals and head of the department of civics ; 
and also upon the width of social vision of the lay leaders of the 
community. 

Recognition of the needs of relating the teaching of the 
schools to outside social matters is indicated most clearly in the 
use of Current Events. In the beginning of several history 
and civics recitations visited, a few minutes were given to the 
presentation of two or three topics of current interest, the facts 
being taken from current newspapers. This work represents a 
very ,healthy development. The facts are chosen at random, how- 
ever. They lack sequence ; they are not connected up to prob- 
lems that are being studied intensively by the class. They are 
mere extras, in no wise related to the rest of the recitation. For 
effectiveness the classes need to have such a long list of civic 
topics for perennial study as we have mentioned. Then current 
events can be brought to bear upon topics which have been 
studied and which are occasionally taken up for such further 
elucidation. When this is done, each current event reported 
by the daily press has significance, and its importance can be 
rightly valued. Such accretion to the body of thought system- 
atically developed in the civics classes should be constant and 
should in fact constitute a continuous review of the various 
topics that have been covered. It is the normal method of in- 
tellectual digestion and assimilation. It is the normal method 
of review. 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 71 

Chapter V. 

EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY. 

The physical aspects of one's home life— one's play, sleep 
meals, the personal hygiene and sanitation of the home, — will 
constitute the basic aspects of one's education in this field. 
The school will take these various physical activities of the chil- 
dren as the starting-point for increasing their information as 
to the various things and for perfecting their habits. 

Wherever the child goes, he takes his problems with him 
The fundamental activities relating to the physical training 
therefore transfer to the school, so long as he is there. These 
can be used as the basis of his physical education. 

The ventilation problem for example, exists at the school as 
fully almost as at the home. The responsibility for taking care 
of the ventilation in the school room can be placed upon the 
pupils, beginning with a rather early age. They can be trained 
to habits of watchfulness as to the condition of ventilation. 
They can be made sensitive through this watchfulness. Then 
with this as a basis the necessary technical information can easily 
be given. Having entered into the practical and the technical in 
so large measure at the school, it is then possible to extend the 
consideration of ventilation to the home living rooms, dining 
rooms, and especially the sleeping rooms. This part of their 
fundamental activities cannot be transferred to the school ; but 
after students are made sensitive to the problems at the school, 
they can do the same things at home ; and through doing them, 
get their education. Only as knowledge is used, is it properly 
assimilated. 

The placing of the school ventilation responsibilities upon 
the pupils in San Antonio for purposes of their education is 
especially facilitated by the fact that in practically all of the 
schools, ventilation is by means of windows. For reasons to be 
pointed out in a later chapter, it is probable that ventlation of 
school rooms in San Antonio should always be chiefly by means 
of windows. The teaching opportunities should not be thrown 



n CHAPTER V. 

away by leaving the ventilation to the janitor, the teacher, or by 
turning it over wholly to a mechanical ventilating system. The 
work should be assigned to the pupils by relays. 

Training in the hygiene of the eye is in a large measure 
training one to a proper control of the light in which one works 
Like ventilation this is a problem that transfers rather largely 
to the schools. The children should be required for purposes 
of education to take care of the blinds and other matters in- 
volved in the control of the light of the school rooms. The tech- 
nical matters relating to the intensity of light, proper direction 
of light, the elimination of shadows in one's work, the nervous 
harmfulness of glare and eye strain, etc., can be easily taught in 
direct connection with the practical situations. Owing to the 
fact that San Antonio school rooms for the most part, have 
windows on two or three sides, the control of the lighting is a 
continuous problem, throughout the day and the year, and can 
be made the basis of practically all the training needed for this 
topic. 

Physical upbuilding exercise, which is one of the most 
important things in the physical training of children, can be 
transferred in a very large degree to the schools. Because of 
the fact that play activities are better when social and varied, 
they can be carried on better at school than at most homes, if 
the school desires it. 

This subject of education is coming to be recognized as 
legitimate in San Antonio. Certain schools, particularly certain 
outlying schools like the Highland Park, or the Beacon Hill, 
are fairly generously supplied with outdoor play space. On the 
play-grounds at quite a number of schools, one finds giant strides, 
swings, teeter-boards, basket-ball outfits, volley-ball outfits, 
horizontal bars, childrens' slides, and occasionally certain other 
play-ground equipment. 

The movement thus begun needs to be continued in a num- 
ber of ways. Every school in the system needs such an outfit 
of playground apparatus as is now being developed at certain of 
the schools ; and in addition to the things named, there perhaps 
ought to be certain other matters like a sand-bin for the little 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 73 

children, a croquet ground or two with its equipment, a tennis 
court or two, indoor baseball outfits to be used outdoors, a 
tether ball equipment, etc. The largest and most difficult prob- 
lem in this connection for San Antonio relates to the surfacing 
of the school grounds. Most of the school grounds require 
filling and draining. After this is done there is the problem of 
providing a surface that will not be muddy in rainy weather; 
that will not be dusty or stony in dry weather; that will not be 
too hard or stony for children to fall on ; and which at the same 
time is durable and requires relatively little care. No such sur- 
face has yet been discovered that is sufficiently inexpensive. 
The city ought to investigate and experiment with different pos- 
sible surfacing by way of finding improvements over present 
conditions. 

After grounds are equipped for proper physical education, 
it is desirable that they be used for this purpose. The play ac- 
tivities for physical education need to be just as much a part 
of the regular daily program as the arithmetic drill for vocational 
training, or the grammar drill for one's language training. 
Well-developed health of body is fully as important as well- 
developed language. The play needs to be a part of the daily 
program of every child. It is too important to be left simply to 
the voluntary activities of children at the inadequate recess 
periods, or to the unsupervised before and after school periods. 
It should be left unsupervised no more than arithmetic is left 
unsupervised. 

There is a great variety of games open to boys and girls. 
Generally however, they know relatively few, because of lack of 
teaching and other lack of opportunities. Just to illustrate games 
that children should know, the following list is presented : 

Children 6 to 9 Years Old. 

Crossing the Brook, Circle Ball, 

Charley Over the Water, London Bridge, 

Farmer in the Dell, Fox and Squirrel, 

Cat and Rat, Nuts in May, 



74 



CHAPTER V 



Ring Call Ball, 
Shadow Tag, 
Stoop Tag. 



Arch Ball, 
Hunt the Fox, 
Roley Poley, 
Dodge Ball, 
Captain Ball, 
Club Snatch. 



Puss in a Corner, 
Water Sprite, 
Shuttle Relay. 

Children 9 to 12 Years Old. 

Cross Tag, 
Drive Ball, 
Stride Ball, 
Three Deep, 
Black Tom, 
Duck on a Rock. 



Children 12 to 15 Years Old. 



Prisoner's Base, 
Curtain Ball, 
Keep Moving, 
Black and White, 
Bombardment, 
Basket Ball, 
Round Ball, 
Volley Ball, 
Square Ball. 



Whip Tag, 

Zigzag Overhead Toss, 
Double Relay Race, 
Pig in a Hole, 
Circle Race, 
Dumb Crambo, 
Fox and Geese, 
Forcing the City Gates, 
Pass and Toss Relay. 



In the later grades and high school, the games and athletics 
of the boys will differentiate more and more in kind from those 
of the girls. Most of those given above are good for either 
boys or girls. Certain games like baseball, football, tennis, 
hockey, shinney, leap frog, badminton, tug-of-war, duck on a 
reck, tetherball, prisoner's base, scrimmage ball, forcing the 
city gates, bombardment, relay races, etc., etc., are particularly 
valuable for the older boys. 

Especially desirable for the girls but valuable also for 
the boys are the rythmic folk games and rythmic gymnastic 
games, usually to the accompaniment of music. A few of the 
more valuable of the gymnastic and folk games are the following: 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 75 

Folk Games Suitable for Small Children. 

Hey, Little Lassie, Csardas, 

How do you do, my Partner? Today is the First of May, 

I see you, Shoemaker's Dance, 

Mountain March. Nigare Polska. 

Folk Games Suitable for Older Girls. 

Csardas, Reap the Flax, 

Fjalnas Polska, Komarno, 

Harvest Dance, Strasak, 

Laudnum Bunches, How Do You Do, Sir? 

Trollen. Varsouvienne. 

The school buildings in San Antonio have never been 
planned to take care of the physical education of children through 
exercise. Owing to the mild climate it is generally felt presum- 
ably that the outdoor play on the playgrounds is sufficient. 
While outdoor play should constitute the major portion for 
most boys and girls, yet there are certain desirable rythmic 
fclk and gymnastic games that can be taken care of indoors. 
For these reasons the buildings ought to be constructed or furn- 
ished so as to provide opportunity. At the Crockett or build- 
ings on the type of the Highland Park, building, the fairly wide 
corridors can be used to very good purpose at certain times of 
the day. If care is taken to secure good air, and to prevent dust 
at the Crockett School, the large open spaces in the basement 
can be so used. One of the best suggestions to be found in 
San Antonio is at the Smith School. If the large pavilion there 
possessed a good floor, it would be a relatively inexpensive 
method of providing for all such gymnastic, folk, and other in- 
door games in a climate like that of San Antonio. It could be used 
almost every day of the year, and the play classes could go there 
for regular play exercises on the program in just the same way 
that they go to their manual training and domestic science 
classes. Naturally such a pavilion would need to have a very 
small room in which a piano could be kept, but which when 
opened would permit the use of the piano for the pavilion with- 



76 CHAPTER V. 

out moving it. Such an inexpensive pavilion consisting of little 
more than roof and floor could be of very large service at every 
school in the city, not only for physical training purposes 
throughout the entire day, but also as a social gathering place 
for- the community for eight months of the year. It is probable 
that the open air gymnasium of this type, will be the kind of 
most practical value for both elementary and high schools in 
this mild climate. 

Another suggestion as to the method of finding floor space 
for the folk and gymnastic games is to be found in the new 
mathematics room at the Main Avenue High School. This room 
has been seated with a modern type of chair-desk, which is alto- 
gether suitable for the scholastic labors of the school room, 
but which is movable. A class can clear the floor in thirty 
seconds, and make it ready for indoor exercises. Owing to the 
development of activity and of variety in school work, it is 
altogether probable that in the school rooms of the not greatly 
distant future it will be found desirable to have them furnished 
in such a way that one can change easily from one type of activity 
to another. At present with their fixed desks and seats the rooms 
are equipped for little more than simply book work ; sitting, writ- 
ing, reading, and listening. The use of the chair-desk, however, 
permits readjustment without difficulty, so that a room can be 
used for first one thing and then another. The city would do 
well it seems to consider the advisability of purchasing movable 
chair-desks or similar movable furniture for new buildings and 
new rooms that are being equipped, and for replacing furniture 
in buildings where the older equipment is being discarded. 

There is another type of physical play which is highly 
valuable for such a climate as that of San Antonio, but which 
has not yet been sufficiently valued. It is a thing too, which 
can be transferred to the school, and in fact thrives rather better 
when transferred to the school and properly supervised by 
adults. Reference is made to the swimming pool. There are 
things of which San Antonio schools have greater immediate 
need ; but it should not be lost sight of in plans that look some- 
what to the future. 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 77_ 

A glance of the list of plays enumerated in the preceding 
paragraphs, which are being introduced as a necessary part 
of the physical education in our progressive cities, shows the 
need teaching. The children do not know the games naturally 
any more than they know their grammar naturally. There must 
be teachers to take care of this aspect of education. They are 
better called play leaders, and they perform their services more 
effectively when they are actually play leaders. While the usual 
opinion has been that chilren play without teaching or leadership, 
yet as the result of practical experience everywhere, it is coming 
to be learned that the play of children thrives best under proper 
leadership. 

It is especially difficult to turn this type of education over 
to the regular teacher at the present time. Generally she does 
not know the games, especially those of boys. She does not 
usually look upon it as a legitimate portion of educational labor, 
and is not apt to take it seriously. Such work on her part re- 
quires a special physique, a special point of view, special knowl- 
edge, often a special form of dress, things that the grade teacher 
does not generally possess. In developing such work within a 
building, it will be found best to give the work over to special 
teachers so far as possible. Until work is more departmentalized 
than at present, this will scarcely be practicable. For the present 
most of it will have to be taken care of by the grade teachers 
under the supervision of the physical training director. 

At the present time physical education in the San Antonio 
schools takes the form of Swedish gymnastics. This is not a 
thing that is made to grow out of the natural life of the children 
within the community. It is not an enlargement, an expansion, 
and refinement of fundamental play activities found in the actual 
population of San Antonio ; and since it does not relate to the 
childrens' general out-of-school life as a natural supplementary 
portion, it is a thing that remains to them foreign, meaningless, 
and uninteresting. In the classes observed both the teacher and 
the pupils were going through certain lifeless mechanical, per- 
functory exercises that were sufficiently joyless to all concerned, 
and which certainly were not bringing about any physical ed- 






78 CHAPTER V. 

ucation. Everything was feebly and passively done. There was 
none of the exuberance of muscular expenditure that one sees 
in childrens' play. The only thing that approached real exercise 
observed in such classes was when a primary class of about 
the third grade, after closing their Swedish gymnastic posturing, 
ran briskly once or twice around the class-room. This running 
was something like dropping down to fundamentals. It seemed 
to be appreciated, and although lasting for only about thirty 
seconds, was certainly more valuable than the entire preceding 
ten minutes of posturing in response to commands. One would 
be safe in saying that if the physical culture work of the schools 
in general was fairly represented by the four exercises observed, 
that it is certainly worth only a very small percent of the 
$22,000 that is annually being paid for it by the city. The 
efficiency of the exercises was so low that it would be a per- 
fectly safe estimate that the city is annually investing $15,000 
for which it receives no return. A*committee of laymen, physi- 
cians, public-spirited women, etc., people who are able to see 
education more clearly from the point of view of fundamental 
human needs and whose vison has not been so distorted by the 
academic atmosphere, should be invited by the school board 
to visit some of these physical education classes as they are con- 
ducted by the regular class room teachers throughout the city 
in the absence of the supervisor and to report whether in their 
opinion the large expense of this type of physical education is 
justified by the results. 

It would be better if the time and money now being ex- 
pended upon this so-called physical education should be turned 
into the development of the natural fundamental play activities 
of children along lines which they can understand, which they 
appreciate and into which they can enter with vigor. The 
schools should add much of a supplementary nature. It should 
lcok forward definitely to the development of recreational 
play habits on the part of adults. In an industrial age like ours 
when specialization is becoming so narrow and when men in large 
numbers are old and thrown on the scrap heap at the age of 
forty because of their lack of physical and mental flexibility, 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 79 

we are coming to discern the great need of continuing play activi- 
ties through adulthood for the sake of keeping normal. The 
automobile for example, which is mostly a pleasure vehicle is 
serving a very important function in this field for those who can 
afford them. It is forbidden to most because of the expense ; 
but when a city has the meeting centers for social purposes of a 
type that could be easily had in San Antonio, and when its popu- 
lation has been trained to healthy leisure occupations in the way 
of rhythmic gymnastics and folk games, in tennis, basketball, 
volley ball, the so-called indoor baseball which should be played 
outdoors always in San Antonio, in swimming, running, jumping 
and other athletic contests, — when the adults of the city are 
trained to these things, and at the same time provided with the 
necessary recreational facilities, then men may easily retain 
their youth and vigor and plasticity through an entire lifetime. 
Until recently we have looked upon play as a thing proper only 
for children and the wealthy leisure classes. They indulged not 
because they needed it, but because they liked it. In these later 
clays, however, we are coming to see that relaxation and recrea- 
tion for our manual laboring classes, both men and women, 
are not only desirable for the pleasures that they give but are 
absolutely indispensable for continuing vigor, physical and social 
normality, and for continuing youth and adaptability throughout 
an entire lifetime. Proper leisure occupations of the type de- 
scribed are more necessary for the laboring classes of pur popu- 
lation than for the well-to-do. The latter class finds plenty of 
social relaxation, etc., in the course of their regular labors. This 
is not the case, however, with those that do the monotonous, 
heavy work which is every whit as necessary. 

Before leaving this topic of bodily development through 
physical recreation, we should call special attention to the situa- 
tion at the high school. Here we find the best of the city's 
children. Work begins at 8 :30 in the morning and runs practi- 
cally without intermission until 2 :00 in the afternoon. Except 
for certain shop-work, it is all of an academic character. There 
is no gymnasium, no athletic field, no physical training teacher, 
no systematized training of any sort. At the close of the after- 



80 CHAPTER V. 

noon session, there are still four hours of daylight in San Antonio 
on the shortest day of the year. The children are turned out of 
the high school with this long stretch of time before them and 
sent away to their homes. While the high school has considerable 
out-door play space, — inadequate for so large a high school, 
but yet considerable, — it is not utilized for physical education. 
It is used only voluntarily by certain students when the uncared- 
for grounds will permit. Some of the high school boys and girls 
are able to find away from the school sufficiently desirable 
opportunities for physical recreation within a social atmosphere 
necessary to the proper education of youth at this age. The. 
majority of them, however, cannot do so. This is the social age 
par excellence and physical recreations of these adolescents 
should be social. Moreover, it is the age when they will develop 
the habits, social and recreational, that are certain to presist in 
the majority of cases throughout life. When this necessary por- 
tion of their education is left only to the random opportunities 
of the homes and streets and the occasional public dance hall or 
other public recreation places, the necessary education in the 
majority of cases is not accomplished, or it is badly accomplished. 
The loss is a serious one of which communities in general are 
not yet sufficiently conscious. They have not usually studied 
the developmental values of physical recreational exercises. If a 
community, however, will lay aside all of its prejudices and pre- 
dilection and will look upon these various matters from the point 
of view of plain common-sense, they will see that such socialized 
physical training is of incalculably greater value than the rela- 
tively useless algebra and Latin for which the community is pay- 
ing so much. If a city cannot afford both, it should choose 
the one of greatest value. Only those who have not yet suffici- 
ently considered the question in all of its bearings can fail to see 
which this is. 

With its present grounds, the high school might do a great 
deal, if it set about it, by using the three hours between two 
and five in the afternoon, and also by introducing certain periods 
during the regular scholastic day for physical training in the way 
to be found in the majority of well-developed high schools, where 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 81 

the gymnasium is generally used for this purpose. There is 
no reason why the San Antonio high schools might not employ 
what we call an outdoor gymnasium. The grounds need sur- 
facing. In the recent recognition by the city of the need of 
proper surfacing for the streets for traffic, it should also be 
recognized that there is an equal need for proper surfacing of 
the school grounds which are used for just as important pur- 
poses and by just as large a fraction of the population. With 
properly surfaced grounds, with proper sprinkling to keep down 
the dust during certain portions of the year, the outdoor grounds 
in this city might be made to serve practically every purpose of 
the indoor gymnasium in colder regions, and at the same time 
possess certain physical features of great value that cannot be had 
in the indoor gymnasium. One of the benefits of such outdoor 
physical education would be perhaps a greater tendency toward 
athletic games, and less tendency toward mere mechanical gym- 
nasium exercises which should be for most youths avoided when 
games and athletics can be made to take their place. There is no 
reason discernible why the carpentry classes of the high school 
might not construct a roof and floor of such a pavilion as is 
found at School No. 15. 

To carry out such work, the high school needs two physical 
directors, who have been fully trained for work in this field, a 
man for the boys, and a woman for the girls. The extra period 
of time can be found in the high schools either by cutting down 
the amount of time now given to book work, or by introducing 
the physical period into the regular program and thus extending, 
the day to 3 :00 o'clock. One cannot speak arbitrarily as to the 
desirable length of the high school day. It all depends upon 
what is being done. If the work is developed so that much of it 
is active: shop-work, laboratory work, games on the play field, 
folk games, music, public speaking, etc., a longer day than the 
present one for those who have no great amount of home work to 
do, is certainly desirable. When the work is over-academic, as it 
is at the present time, even the five and one-half hour day may 
be too long. 



82 CHAPTER V. 

When the city, a few years hence, sets about building its 
new high school, provision for physical education should receive 
long and serious attention. If an attempt is made to utilize 
present facilities as fully as possible, by the time the city is 
planning its new building and grounds it will have developed 
a fund of practical experience that can serve in large degree 
as a practical foundation for judgment in deciding what should 
be done. 

As we shall have occasion to point out in the chapter on 
buildings, San Antonio conditions are very different from those 
of the colder cities of the north and northeast in connection 
with whose buildings most of our books are written. It is 
not possible simply to borrow their modes of construction and 
apply them to San Antonio conditions. This city needs more 
open air facilities. Serious mistakes can be made from such an 
attempt to borrow ideas from a different climate. Things for 
San Atnonio must be worked out in San Antonio and in cities 
similarly situated. To try out the plans suggested is one way of 
finding out how to plan for the new building. 

Thus far we have been considering only the practical ex- 
ercises. In connection with these, there should be introduced 
a large amount of technical, scientific information relating to 
the physiology and the hygiene of muscular exercise. There is 
a great wealth of such scientific information relating to the ef- 
fects of exercise upon respiration, expansion of the lungs, de- 
veloping healthy conditions in the lungs, rendering them less sus- 
ceptible to disease, the effects of exercise upon the heart, upon the 
arterial and venous circulation, upon digestion, upon the health 
of the various digestive organs, upon assimilation within the 
tissues, upon general nervous tone, effects upon the kidneys, 
relation to wastes, upon resistance to bacterial attacks, upon 
relation to balanced dietary, to sleep, to periods of work and rest, 
to fatigue, to nervousness, to organic diseases, and to a large 
number of other things. The physiology of the schools which at 
the present time is so abstract and so little related to the actual 
problems of life can be given functional virility only as it can 
be directly related to such fundamental physical activities. 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 83 

This is stated in full view of the excellence of the textbooks 
now used in the elementary school on this subject as compared 
with the type of textbook commonly used until recently. But 
even a good text after rapid preliminary reading is best used 
as a reference book in connection with practical situations. It 
should not be a thing that is merely to be learned and recited 
without reference to the human situation in which children 
and teachers pass their days. The high school which needs the 
heavy work in the hygiene of exercise is not so fortunate in 
its textbook. It is more along the line of the old-fashioned 
physiology. The high school needs a better text and it needs 
library facilities which will permit teachers and pupils to gather 
up the various needed items of physiological and hygienic infor- 
mation. The amount that should be gathered together and 
taught upon this one topic alone is larger than the whole sum 
of information now to be found in the textbook used in the high 
school. 

Social as well as technical understanding of the topic is 
needed. This, like civic and industrial topics, should be given 
wide social perspective through history, geography, econom- 
ics and sociological studies. In the reading of the pupils, they 
should come to see and understand the way the physical play 
impulse has worked itself out in the various nations of the world, 
past and present. A knowledge of the physical training of the 
Greeks before and during their Golden Age has for our times as 
much significance as a knowledge of their art and their political 
adjustments and problems. One's studies should show that it 
has been during medieval and modern times one of the largest 
factors in the development of national virility and strength. The 
studies of a social sort should show the obstructive influences 
that are growing up in our cities, which must of necessity lead 
to national degeneration of our population unless by taking 
thought we provide for corrective training and corrective oppor- 
tunities for the population. Studies should enter into the econ- 
omic costs of such humanitarian provision in many cities of the 
United States and in cities of foreign countries ; and into the 
methods that are being employed. 



84 CHAPTER V. 

A further major topic in this general field of physical edu- 
cation is personal cleanliness. The practical activities in this 
training can be only in part transferred to the school. The build- 
ing and grounds can be made as perfect a living place as possible 
on the side of cleanliness. Then to live five or six hours a day in 
a building that is as clean and sanitary as a hospital, is uncon- 
sciously to develop within one an understanding of the nature 
of housing cleanliness ant sanitation and of an appreciation of its 
desirability. Everything about the school should be so clean and 
so attractive to the eye as to suggest the desirability of cleanli- 
ness of clothing, of person and belongings, because of the in- 
congruity of anything else within that situation. The ugly and 
unclean within ugly and unclean surroundings appear perfectly 
naturaland congruous; but when the unclean and ugly are set 
down in the midst of a situation that is clean and attractive in 
every way, the undesirable stands out in repellant contrast. The 
indvidual who is responsible for this contrast, if he has any social 
or aesthetic sense — and there are few that lack it — is impelled 
of his own accord to make suirh correction as he can. One's prac- 
tical education in cleanliness should so far as possible take this 
social form. 

In neighborhoods where the homes do not furnish necessary 
facilities for personal cleanliness, where the standards are low, 
it is desirable that a portion of the practical activities be trans- 
ferred to the school, and opportunities provided for promoting 
personal cleanliness. Certain schools in San Antonio need bath- 
ing facilities more than they need technical grammar. It would 
be a very easy matter for the carpentry shop boys to construct 
buildings which contain shower baths which might be used as a 
regular portion of the class education of the children. In a num- 
ber of cities this feature of education is obtaining a regular place 
upon the program. In those schools in San Antonio where the 
work is needed most of the children do not go to the high school. 
The facilities are needed within the elementary schools. It is 
needed as a portion of their training. 

We have discussed these four topics of ventilation, lighting, 
physical exercise and personal cleanliness, by way of indicating 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 85 

how training can be made to grow naturally out of practical 
situations. They are merely illustrative. Those responsible for 
education in each school should assemble the list of matters in 
which the pupils actually need training in order to promote health 
and physical efficiency. The schools should not get the topics 
from reading the textbooks. They should be got from reading 
the conditions within the district about the school. 

After training for physical welfare is developed as fully 
as possible along desirable lines, it still remains that the major 
portion of one's actual physical training must take place under 
out-of-school conditions. At present the pupil cannot be at school 
more than thirty hours a week, while he must be at home, upon 
the street, etc., for the other one hundered thirty-eight hours 
each week. The things done during this one hundred thirty-eight 
hours may be more powerful in determining health habits, points 
of view, standards of judgment, than the thirty hours at school. 
If the short time at school can be knit up with the long time at 
home so that the child or youth remembers the technical teach- 
ings of the school and uses these for the practical guidance in 
his out-of-school activities, then such practical use of his knowl- 
edge educates him in desirable ways. But children are short- 
sighted and prone to forget. The teacher needs to be in contact 
with the parents and with the home-life. No one ever expects 
long-range work in the curative labors of a physician ; he must 
be in intimate contact with the situation where the cure is ef- 
fected. It is no more possible to do constructive physical teach- 
ing labor at long range ; teachers must be in intimate contact with 
the situations where the education can be effected. And this is 
where the knowledge is put into practice. 

In addition to that just mentioned, there is needed another 
link in the situation. In more than a hundred cities in our 
country this is the home-visiting health nurse. The work of the 
nurse is being developed in connection with the physical educa- 
tion and medical inspection activities of the school. It is found 
that these latter activities largely fail of their purpose unless 
the link between home and school is greatly strengthened so that 
the supplementary teaching and advice of the physician and 



86 C HAPTER V. 

teacher can be made actually to bring about results in the funda- 
mental activities of the home. The child cannot be expected to 
make the connection in sufficient degree. The "follow-up work" 
of the health nurse is a mode of helping the supplementary teach- 
ing to make the right connection with the fundamental applica- 
tion. In going to the homes, in visiting and advising with the 
parents, in becoming an advisory of the home, so to speak, the 
school nurse is coming to do for physical education in one of its 
aspects what the visiting argicultural teacher is coming to do 
in many places for the home gardening. 

We are learning that education must be accomplished in the 
ways and in the places where it can best be done, and not merely 
where we think it most convenient to do it. The school house 
is not the best place for much of it. In fact it is not the place 
at all for a good deal of it. The sooner this is realized by a com- 
munity, the sooner will it be able to put its education upon a 
sound and effective basis. So long as our schools are expected 
to do everything at the school house, the work degenerates into 
mere subject-teaching, some of which is of value, much of which 
is of no value. The community gets about fifty cents value for 
every dollar spent ; and the school remains within its proverbial 
atmosphere of impracticality. 

We are learning that education must be accomplished by 
the one who knows the various problems, and not merely by 
one who happens to have a teacher's certificate. For a certain 
part of the work of personal hygiene and civic sanitation, the 
school nurse is the best teacher. As a matter of fact, it is alto- 
gether probable that a trained school nurse who has had a proper 
medical course, a proper course in social and personal sanitation 
is the one who should do the major portion of the teaching 
of these matters, both within the school and within the general 
community. In the immediate present, however, there are not 
enough nurses properly qualified to take the educational point 
of view as well as the hygienic ; and generally a city does not 
employ a sufficient number. As a result their teaching must be 
mostly through individual advising of pupils and parents, with 
occasional talks to them upon important health topics. They 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 87 

should, however, be very fully the intermediaries between the 
home and the regular teachers as to the teaching needs. In 
their visiting of the homes they come to know exactly what is to 
be found on the side of the fundamentals. They need to keep 
the teachers within the schools definitely informed as to what is 
needed on the side of the supplemental ; and they should be the 
supervisors of the content of the work. The visiting school 
nurse has functions beyond the mere physical ministration to 
children's needs within the home. She needs to perform a large 
quantity of intellectual ministration as well. This brings us to 
a discussion of the medical department as a portion of the 
school work. 

At present the medical department is only in the beginning 
of its development in San Antonio. An able and well-trained 
physician is being employed for a part of his time. There are, 
however, no school nurses yet employed. Their employment 
constitutes one of the next necessary steps. To indicate the posi- 
tion of San Antonio in the matter of money expended for this 
branch of educational service as compared with the amounts ex- 
pended in other cities of the same population class, the situation 
is presented in Table VI. 

Table VI. 

Expenditure per Pupil for Promotion of Health, 
City Schools. 

Amount Amount 

City Spent. City Spent. 

Hoboken, N. J $ .78 Oakland $ .66 

Duluth, Minn. 44 Trenton, N. J 43 

Richmond, Va 42 Camden, N. J 41 

Toledo, 40 Jersey City, N. J .40 

Scranton, Pa $ .38 

Providence, R. I. 36 Norfolk, Va 36 

Lowell, Mass 34 Springfield, Mass 34 



8* CHAPTER V. 

Atlanta, Ga : 32 Erie, Pa 31 

Des Moines 30 Nashville, Tenn 28 

Harrisburg, Pa $ 27 

Spokane 25 Elizabeth, N. J \ 25 

Lynn, Mass 24 Youngstown, 23 

Hartford, Conn 22 Houston, Tex .20 

Dayton, O 19 Grand Rapids 18 

St. Paul $ .18 

Birmingham, Ala 17 Akron, O 16 

St. Joseph, Mo 14 Columbus, 12 

SAN ANTONIO 10 Wilkesbarre, Pa 10 

Salt Lake City 08 Tacoma 05 

The table shows that San Antonio after less than two years 
of attention to this department, finds itself in advance of cer- 
tain other cities, but very considerably below the average prac- 
tice of the cities in the country. Experience indicates that in 
cities where there are 10,000 to 12,000 children in the schools, 
as in San Antonio, there is needed the full time of one physician ; 
and for the usual routine work, the full time of two or three 
nurses. It is felt to be better to employ one physician for full 
time than to employ two physicians for half time. The one 
physician on full time can specialize on this aspect of educational 
labor and can have no distractions and calls upon his time of 
the sort that are unavoidable in the case of the physician who is 
at the same time carrying on a private practice. . Naturally in 
employing a competent physician for full-time work it is neces- 
sary to pay a salary sufficient to secure a high type of man. 
A city of the size of San Antonio will not be able to secure ef- 
fective full-time service on a salary of less than $2500. Two 
properly trained school nurses ought to be had at salaries similar 
to those being paid to teachers. 

The medical arm of the service should examine every pupil 
in the schools at stated intervals and any other pupil whenever 
any suspicious development presents itself. Such examinations 



EDUCATION FOR PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY 89 

always reveal a large number of incipient troubles practically 
all of which can be remedied, if taken in hand in time. Then it 
is the business of the school nurses to follow up the cases that 
require attention through consulting with the parents and ad- 
vising with them so as to bring them to give to the children the 
necessary medical attention. Without the school nurses not a 
great deal can be accomplished by the school physician except 
the examination for and the isolation of contagious diseases. 
For other troubles, the physician working alone can make out 
formal cards and notify the parents ; but it has been found from 
experience that such notifications are neglected in ninety pre- 
cent of the cases. The result in such cases is that nothing comes 
of the examination by the physician ; his time and labor and the 
community expense are wasted. Except for the contagious 
disease side of the situation the work of the medical inspector 
cannot be made profitable unless nurses are employed for fol- 
low-up work. 

All physicians, dentists, and nurses, engaged in this work 
should in time be employed and paid by the school city. In 
the immediate present, however, in the development of the work, 
the city should make use of any voluntary medical and dental 
associations that might be willing to donate their services. In 
many cities, for example, free dental clinics have been carried 
on by the dental fraternity which are for the purpose merely of 
finding and recording dental defects. Parents can treat or not, 
just as they wish. In such preliminary dental examinations 
there is absolutely no danger of dentists manufacturing defects 
for the sake of manufacturing work for their own profession. 
Wherever medical inspection has been well developed it has been 
found that from sixty to eighty percent of the children are in 
serious need of dental attention. The real needs are so very 
many that it is not necessary for the dentists to point out in 
their examination defects which do not exist. They exist in over- 
abundance and parents need to have them pointed out* Parents 
are negligent of their childrens' welfare generally because of 
ignorance of conditions. It is a service to them to have defects 
pointed out. If they have doubts as to the actuality of any 



90 CHAPTER V . 

defect found, they can examine for themselves. Such things are 
usually visible when one gives attention to the matter. While 
this fs not by any means the best mode of taking care of teeth- 
inspection, yet its advantages far more than offsets its disad- 
vantages. It should be taken advantage of until the city is 
ready to employ a school dentist for the work. 

This plan of voluntary examination is one that can be em- 
ployed also in the general medical examination which should 
cover all the children in the city. It is less easy to verify the 
results and recommendations of the examining physicians in the 
case of very many kinds of defects, and this perhaps is why 
such examination by voluntary medical associations has been less 
employed than the dental examination. But where there is a 
school physician employed by the city, in all cases examined 
where recommendations for treatment are made, their findings 
can be checked up by the school physician. We would recom- 
mend such a plan only until the city could have its own em- 
ployed physicians and school nurses to do the work. 

Until such routine examination has been made of all of the 
children of the city it will not be possible for San Antonio to 
know the extent of the need of dental and medical attention 
on the part of its children. The need is always found to be far 
lsrger than the city suspects. 

The city can afford the expense. Table VI shows that the 
school boards of most cities are of that opinion. The work is 
not only profitable for the physical education of the children ; 
but it lays the necessary physical foundation for efficient educa- 
tional work in all subjects. 

Ill-health necessarily slows down the work in the class- 
rooms. Let us suppose that it is slowed down one percent. 
The city is paying $600 per hour for every hour that schools 
are in session. They are in session about 170 days or 850 hours. 
Every one percent slowing down of the work means a loss of 
$5,000 of money actually spent. If it were spent on school 
physicians and school nurses, their work would save far more 
than one percent of the school's time ; and far more than their 
cost. 



EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS 91 

Chapter VI. 

EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS. 

Exercise alone will devlop a man, and this alone will keep 
his powers up to normal strength. Everbody recognizes that this 
i- true of his muscular development. It is just as true of his 
mental and social development. When not exercised these 
powers dwindle and become enfeebled in just the same way the 
muscles grow soft and flabby and feeble. Men are old before 
their time and thrown upon the scrap-heap because the mechan- 
ization of industry combined with the lack of stimuli to other 
kinds of mental exercise have left them mentally weak ond 
flabby. The corrective to specialized industry is the possession 
of a variety of leisure occupations and recreations on a proper 
social and mental level to which one can turn for his enjoyment, 
and in the enjoyment of which he keeps his mind fresh and 
vigorous. Recreations that involve social and intellectual ele- 
ments build him out along the lines that are left neglected by his 
narrowing vocation. The kinds of normaling recreations for 
which he needs training are such as the following: (1) Read- 
ing concerning matters that touch all the important angles of 
human life ; reading about industry, commerce, inventions, applied 
science, travel, biography, history, literature, geographical and 
social relationships, etc., etc. (2) Conversation, discussion, 
debates, lectures, etc., involving more personal contacts than 
i:i the case of reading, but touching the same fields of ideas. 
(3) Avocations or hobbies, things that lie ouside of his regular 
vocation, either closely related to it or in an entirely different 
field. The man who is continually taking up and mastering 
new things during his recreational hours will keep himself 
intellectually exercised in highly desirable ways. (4) Travel 
and observation of human affairs. (5) Sports, plays, games, 
and other things already discussed in the section on physical 
education. 

In discussing leisure occupations, recreations and play, we 
are treating things of serious adult necessity. They are neces- 



92 CHAPTER VI. 

sary normalizing influences under conditions of our specialized 
age. Fortunately one enjoys them; but if there were no results 
other than mere enjoyment perhaps the whole matter could be 
left to individual initiative. But the values are deeper than mere 
enjoyment. The whole character of the man is in large meas- 
ure the result of his leisure occupations. If these are low, petty, 
or sensual, then in character, he becomes low, petty, and sensual. 
If on the other hand he lives in a world of at least moderately 
high thinking and enjoys living in such a world ; if his recrea- 
tions, his conversation, his reading, his observation, his sports, 
games, etc., are upon a proper humanistic level, these things 
make him an entirely different type of man. What a man does 
miikes him what he is. 

Here we find the justification for the teaching of so much 
literature in the schools. But when one looks at the materials 
used, and at the methods of work, one wonders if those in charge 
of the work have consciously defined their purposes. The pur- 
pose evidently should be the habit of doing much reading of a 
varied character. The way to develop any habit is to do the 
thing for a long time in just the way one wants the habit 
formed. 

The schools need therefore to offer the necessary facilities 
for interesting reading of a varied character touching upon the 
entire round of things which the adult should be habituated 
to read. There should be literature in abundance of varied 
types, suited to the comprehension and interests of the pupils. 
It should be read just as the adults out of school will be ex- 
pected to read, — for the sake of the interest in the substance 
of the reading of the story. The reading should be continuous 
and moderately voluminous. It should not be much dissected, 
analyzed, or recited upon. The literary reading of the elementary 
schools should be rescued from the said slough of methodology 
in which it now lies in San Antonio, — the four "attacks," the 
dictionary study, the diacritical marks, the syllabification, the 
"interpretation of thought getting," the extraction of the thought 
from the pupils by minute piece-meal quantities, the "expression 
or thought giving," etc., etc. The mince-meat method of study- 



EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS 93 

ing literature destroys all the life of it. A selection to be ap- 
preciated should be taken up and read through continuously 
and enjoyably from beginning to end. The thing is not read to 
be "learned." Most literature reading should be silent reading 
and home reading. If the children will not do the reading with- 
out the heavy recitation driving, then the wrong selections have 
been chosen for those children. They must do it all with a rea- 
sonable degree of spontaneity, or it will never develop a per- 
manent leisure occupation. 

In the lists of reading needed by men for their leisure hours, 
reading of so-called good literature is but one of many things. 
The world of literary art is mostly a world of fiction. Much of it 
is so-called, but the poetry, the drama, the stories, in large 
measure relate only to things and incidents that have their exist- 
ence in the world of art. In a complicated world of serious affairs, 
it is probable that one's leisure reading should relate itself 
much more with the things of serious affairs, than with the 
things that exist only in the world of art. The reading habits 
of pupils should probably be developed in large measure in con- 
nection with things of the actual world of affairs. The things 
are infinite in number and variety ; and when written up in pro- 
per fashion are just as interesting to the boy or girl as the fic- 
tions and subtleties of the world of literary art. 

Give to the boys full, voluminous, well-written accounts of 
the invention of the aeroplane, of modifications as it is being 
improved, of different ways of developing it in different lands, 
stories of adventure in connection with this machine, stories in- 
volving its uses and applications to the various fields of human 
affairs, reading as to the scientific aspects, mechanical and other- 
wise ; give to him surmises and prophesies as to the ways it may 
be developed and used in the future; and the normal boy will, 
if it is written in the proper fashion, read the whole of it with 
interest, avidity, and profit ; and when one observes his interest 
and his intellectual exhilaration one sees the absurdity and the 
futility of using the analytic, mince-meat method of developing 
the thought in his school reading. His reading is actuated by the 
kind of motives that we wish to have prevail during his adult 



94 CHAPTER VI. 

years. If it is to continue through his adult years, it must be 
formed during childhood and youth in the way that it is then 
to operate. 

Give the boy or girl of San Antonio an interestingly written 
book upon the cotton industry, which shows the nature of agri- 
cultural life upon the cotton plantation, the nature of the labors 
there performed, the shipping and the manufacture of the cot- 
ton, the conditions of life within the factory, and the factory 
town. Show the processes performed within the factory by 
means of pictures. Read of the life on cotton plantations in 
Egypt, and India, and Formosa. Read of cotton manufactures 
in England and Germany, and Bombay, and Japan, etc., etc. 
When well-written and well-illustrated, boys and girls will find 
this just as interesting reading and often much more interesting 
reading than the literary subtleties of the school reading books, 
and incalculably more profitable. To make such reading con- 
crete, it should introduce the personal in very large measure. 
This can be done by introducing the things historically in nar- 
rative fashion and using a great deal of the biographical ele- 
ment. 

Before this training for wide reading in many fields can 
be accomplished, the schools need to be equipped with the neces- 
sary reading materials. Whatever else has to be cut out because 
of a lack of funds, this is the one thing for which we do not 
hesitate to recommend immediate and generous expenditures. 
The school board should purchase thousands of volumes of books 
relating to the various departments of human affairs to be used 
in connection with history, geography, civics, industrial studies, 
literature, etc. 

The fundamental world in which the children of San An- 
tonio live has a relatively narrow horizon. It covers but a few 
square miles. Beyond this horizon stretches in every direction 
the wide world of industry, commerce, transportation, art, travel, 
government, human institutions, etc., etc. Although the child 
in San Antonio sees literally into this large world of affairs 
but a short distance, as a matter of fact San Antonio conditions 
are linked within the wide interconnected web of affairs that 



EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS 95 

lies out over the whole face of the globe. It is necessary for 
San Antonio children in their supplemental education to be given 
a vision of this wide world of things and relations which stretches 
out beyond the horizon to the far side of the earth. This is in 
fact the largest single task that is placed upon the schools. But 
ir order to accomplish it, in order that the vision of these chil- 
dren may carry so far, the necessary instruments of vision must 
be provided. It is these reading materials that will permit them 
in their imagination to enter vividly into human affairs in every 
portion of the world. Because of a lack of these necessary in- 
struments of vision, the city is probably not reaping more than 
fifty percent of easily possible results for the heavy community 
investments in history, geography, civics, science, literature, etc. 
After buildings are built and manned with high-priced teachers, 
the investment should not be half nullified by failure to furnish 
the necessary tools for the work. The public's faith in the magi- 
cal power of teachers to accomplish a half million dollars worth 
of work with no tools but talk and state-adopted textbooks is 
mostly misplaced faith. 

On the side of literature only, the Main Avenue High School 
h much better situated than the elementary schools. Each 
class in addition to the regular three or four educational classics 
read each year, is supplied in the library with from four to six 
supplementary books of English and American literature. The 
books are chosen too largely from the point of view of literary 
predilection ; but still the list as a whole possesses a very large 
degree of human interest. They have been furnished by the 
board in sets sufficiently large that when they are taken up, 
each individual in the class can be supplied with a copy. Of 
the forty sets or so of such supplementary literary reading, there 
are in the neighborhood of 2,000 copies. So far as it goes, this 
is excellent, and indicates what the board ought to do for all 
grades in the elementary schools, and also for the wide range 
of reading needed in all the other fields of the public training. 

Let us now glance briefly at certain other leisure occupations 
in which training is needed. High school students are highly 
gregarious and have often a tendency to organize in undesirable 



96 CHAPTER VI. 

ways. The proper way to forestall this is not to forbid adoles- 
cent organizations, but to organize them along socially desirable 
lines, and to utilize the tremendous power of this adolescent 
gregarious impulse for educational purposes. At the present 
time very much valuable work along this line is being done. 
There are debating clubs, dramatic clubs, a high school Congress, 
a Jeffersonian Literary Society, a Shakespeare Club, a Mark 
Twain Story-Telling Club, etc., etc. Generally a teacher is 
sponsor for the clubs and helps to keep the pupils' activities 
upon a desirable educational level. Little needs to be said con- 
cerning this work but that it ought to be continued and developed 
in every possible way. In time the buildings should provide 
more adequately for meeting rooms, social rooms, for both after- 
noon and evening use. The public-speaking teacher by all means 
should be required to be in constant contact with the various 
debating and literary organizations. The organization work 
furnishes the motive and the opportunity for such teacher. 

Another leisure occupation of large value is music. This 
appears to be developing in a healthy way in the elementary 
schools. The city is giving about the average amount of time 
to it in the grades. In the high school, no mention whatever is 
made of music in any of the courses of study, and it is given 
no credit. There are, however, in the high schools, four periods 
during the week of chorus work, two for boys and two for girls. 
In addition to this there is a high school orchestra of fifteen 
pieces which meets twice a week for an hour or two of practice. 
For a city possessing so much musical talent and so many musical 
organizations as San Antonio, there is no need of stopping here 
to explain the value of music as a leisure occupation and the 
desirability of the school's seriously training for skill, under- 
standing and appreciation of music upon proper levels. The 
musical leaders of the city should make an organized demand 
upon the schools for more adequate recognition of music as a 
legitimate portion of the high school training. The high school 
ought to offer a full series of courses and give full credit. It is 
the most popular form of art, and is certainly for the popula- 



EDUCATION FOR LEISURE OCCUPATIONS 97 

tion in general more valuable than certain subjects that are now 
taught in the high school, for which credit is given. 

Reference has been made in a previous chapter to civic 
and social teaching, using the school assembly rooms as civic 
meeting places. The work can scarcely be made agreeable and 
attractive if the meeting consist only of the cold intellectual dis- 
cussions. Along with the intellectual factor there should be an 
abundance of art, music, drama, pageant, etc., to give warmth 
and color and humanness to such gatherings. A high school 
orchestra in a city possessing the size and musical talent of San 
Antonio should consist of not less than sixty pieces. After ten 
years of development, the high school orchestra, together with 
skilled members who have graduated and are keeping up their 
music in connection with the school orchestra might well con- 
stitute a people's symphony orchestra for the city. The thing 
has been tried and has been made to work in other cities. Now 
that music as an element in human life is coming to be more 
appreciated in our school systems, this development of civic 
music through the high school orchestra is sure to spread to 
all of our cities in time. 

The orchestra demands a degree of musical specialization 
and skill which can be expected of relatively few. For the 
majority, the less technical chorus is more suitable. The chorus 
work of the elementary and high schools can be developed for 
training purposes during school days ; and can remain one of 
the very best of social leisure occupations during adult life. 
People's choruses meeting in the school assembly halls are sure 
to grow as the value of this type of leisure occupation is more 
appreciated, and as people find themselves sufficiently skilled 
to participate in it, through having been trained in the elementary 
and high schools. 

A large part of the population will not continue its musical 
activities, vocal or instrumental, after school days are over, 
in any systematic active way. For them the training for music 
as a leisure occupation if rightly done has not been lost. They 
have been trained to higher appreciation and understanding. 
They are the listeners, and this is as much a musical leisure oc- 



98 CHAPTER VI. 

: t 

cupation as to be an active performer. Very much of the train- 
ing therefore, needs to be for developing musical appreciation. 
This is best developed through much hearing of much good 
music. The technical teaching of vocal music, the chorus work, 
readings concerning the theory and the nature of music, biogra- 
phical readings of composers, etc., etc., have a place in the de- 
velopment of musical appreciation. But along with all this, 
there should be full experience in hearing much music of proper 
quality. This is a further reason for the development of chorus 
work and instrumental work so far as possible in both elementary 
and high schools. It is a reason for introducing the Victrola, 
each with hundreds of records into every school, and the player 
piano. The reproductions furnished by these instruments is not 
always of satisfactory musical quality. In a very large percent 
of the cases, however, with good instruments, the quality is 
sufficiently high for developing an understanding of the nature 
of the world's best musical compositions. It can lay a founda- 
tion for appreciation accessible to all, which can be used for the 
further refinement, using more satisfactory instruments and 
methods. 

Music, as far as possible, should serve as the back-ground 
of all sorts of social activities of the children from the kinder- 
garten to the end of the high school. This is already worked out 
in the kindergarten. Music needs to be given its proper place 
i'i connection with the gymnastic and folk games, pageants, pro- 
cessions, marches, theatricals, evening entertainments, morning 
exercises, celebration of feast days, etc. Music has a large place 
in human life as the accompaniment of action ; as such it serves 
as an emotional intensifier. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 99 

Chapter VII. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING. 

On the side of English, naturally every child in San Antonio 
should be trained to read well enough for his life's activities ; 
to spell well enough for any writing that he may have to do which 
is to be read by others, but not to learn to spell words that he will 
not use in his writing; to learn enough grammar to keep his 
language correct enough for any circumstances under which he 
may use it, and not to give him any grammar beyond that which 
is needed for such correctness ; to spend such time in polishing 
up his pronunciation as may be demanded by the language of 
the social class in which he is to move and act, but not to expend 
energy in polishing his pronunciation much beyond that which 
is actually required for future social participation in his own 
social class ; and finally to give him such power to express his 
ideas orally and in writing as he may need for his life's activities. 

The city's investment in English language teaching for the 
current year is in the neighborhood of $210,000. This invest- 
ment is large enough to warrant careful examination of the na- 
ture of the work and of the results. The situation should be 
carefully scrutinized to see: (1) That the things aimed at in 
the language teaching are things that are really needed. (2) 
That nothing is aimed at which is not needed. (3) That every- 
thing which is needed and which can reasonably be done is aimed 
at. (4) And that effective methods of work are employed. 

READING. 

What reading is done by adults for which training is needed 
ir, the schools? 

Every man and every woman needs to read for ideas, sug- 
gestions and information in connection with the things of their 
callings ; in connection with civic and political problems ; for 
recreation; and for the general social enlightenment that comes 
from newspapers, magazines and books. These are about the 
only reasons for reading that most people will ever have. 



100 CHAPTER VII. 

All this will be silent reading. Now when reading matter 
is so cheap and everybody knows how to read and can read 
silently so much more rapidly than he can read aloud, oral read- 
ing has practically fallen into disuse. Ask the first hundred men 
and women you meet on the street how much time per week they 
give to oral reading, you will find that the vast majority do 
none at all. For the very few who do read orally occasionally, 
you will find that in the case of nearly all of them the quality 
of their oral reading depends chiefly upon the understanding 
of the substance of what they are reading ; upon their thinking 
habits developed in connection with their silent reading ; and 
upon their emotional life and the quality of their personality. 
They will tell you that the training for "expressive reading" 
over which the elementary school agonizes so greatly was in 
their case mostly so much waste of time. Their "expression" 
depends chiefly upon the quality of their minds, their fullness 
of general understanding, their emotions, their enthusiasm and 
their interest in the thing they read, and not upon the superficial 
attempts to put "expression" into their oral reading during school 
days. Expression is developed mainly by developing quality 
of personality. The purpose of teaching reading then 
appears to be silent reading for ideas, ease of reading, rapid 
reading, and ability to get all the ideas — at least a full quantity 
of them — as one goes along rapidly through the book or article. 

Having this common-sense purpose in mind, any man or 
woman of good judgment can prescribe the method to be used. 
It is simply much practice in silent reading of the type desired. 
It is simply a voluminous reading of interesting and valuable 
books, newspapers and magazines. After the first grade has 
taught the symbols and started the pupil along this road, in the 
excellent way that one now finds being done, the main thing 
is to give him large quantities of good things to read ; and things 
good to read. He needs opportunity, guidance, and stimulation ; 
but beyond these he does not need much "teaching." 

The things needed for the training are books, magazines, and 
newspaper articles. They should be things of worth that can 
be so recognized by the pupils. They should be well written, 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 101 

interesting and suited to the pupils' comprehension. When these 
are supplied, the things further needed are more books, more 
magazines, and more well-written sensible newspaper articles. 
And after these, — still more. 

This does not mean so great an expense to the school city 
as may at first sight appear. Twenty-five thousand books will 
cost little as compared with the enormous waste that now results 
from trying to teach history, geography, literature, civics, science, 
etc., without the indispensable voluminous reading materials ; 
and books can be circulated from school to school so that a pur- 
chase of one book per pupil may well mean during the year a 
reading of ten books per pupil. 

At the present time the reading work of the San Antonio 
schools is struggling in the quagmire of pedagogic methodology. 
Note the order of procedure iri developing a reading lesson as 
presented in a circular sent out to all of the schools as directions 
for the work: 

"Order of Development in Reading. 

1. — Word drill for pronunciation: 

(1) write words upon the board 

(2) number them 

(3) syllabify 

(4) accent 

(5) mark with diacritical marks. 

2. — Study period with 'a motive' — for thought mastery. 

3. — Interpretation or thought getting: 

(1) pivotal thought first 

(2) modifiers second 

(3) To be conducted in either of two ways — teacher 
reading and questioning for the thought or pupils 
reading silently, closing books, and teacher ques- 
tioning. N. B. Both methods should be used from 
time to time as the subject matter demands. 



102 CHAPTER VII. 

4. — Study period for practice in getting thought and for 
word and phrase mastery. 

5. — Expression or thought giving: 

(a) articulation exercise 

(b) position of pupils in front of audience with head 
up, chest expanded or lifted, (chin in), both feet 
flat upon the floor and book held easily, either 
with one or both hands. 

(c) audience — the main body of the class and the teach- 
er. N. B. The teacher should be across the room 
from the reading section. 

(d) Correction of errors — kindly criticism first and then 
attention to errors. 

(1) If emphasis or inflexion is at fault, question for 
the thought. 

(2) If word mastery is at fault, go back to word list 
and help through phonics. 

(3) If phrase mastery is faulty have silent reading 
for concentration. 

N. B. In some cases errors can be corrected only 
through imitation." 

Every piece of reading matter taken up is chopped to bits. 
It is not read through rapidly and silently and enjoyably for the 
srike of the ideas, the inspiration, and the emontional and aesthetic 
exhilaration and stimulation. This is not found in the list at 
all. The piece is dissected, the various parts torn asunder; its 
life destroyed by too much teaching elaborateness. The method 
laid down in this circular will never develop "ease of reading, 
rapid reading, and ability to get all the ideas" as one reads rapidly 
and silently through a selection. 

The teachers are not to blame. They have had to spend a 
full year on a textbook that any normal child rightly trained 
can read through in twelve or fifteen hours. Looking at it from 
the pupils' point of view the material is not enough to give them 
sufficient practice for acquiring vocabulary, or facility of read- 
ing; so the teacher has to help develop all the details. On the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 103 

other hand, with such a meager material for a year's work, the 
teacher is practically forced to develop elaborate ways of wast- 
ing time in order to use it all. To permit the purchase of one 
supplemental reading book by each pupil each year is a help ; 
but it goes only a little way. A man who has only one loaf for 
a month's food-supply is not greatly helped by a second loaf. 
The situation is a tragic one for both pupils and teachers. 

We do not wish to be understood as depreciating word- 
study, phonics, pronunciation, diacritical marks, etc. Each of 
these is necessary, and each has its proper place. But its place 
is but preliminary and incidental to more important things. 

To take care of and to circulate systematically and economi- 
cally needed reading materials, the city should have a central 
depository and circulating facilities. At present the small cir- 
culating school library is in the hands of one of the building 
principals. But when the matter is developed, it cannot be 
handled in any such simple way. The school board will do best 
perhaps to enter into a co-operative arrangement with the city 
library whereby it may serve as depository and also care for 
the circulation of the books. The books should be selected by 
the teachers and supervisors and purchased by the school city. 
The librarian can co-operate in highly valuable ways in the 
selection of the books. But at bottom the selections must grow 
out of the educational work of the schools. Ultimate responsi- 
bility for the selection of every book used in the schools must 
rest upon those whom the city has made responsible for educa- 
tion. 

SPELLING. 

In the elementary schools of San Antonio nine percent of 
the total time is given to spelling. The city's annual investment 
is in the neighborhood of $40,000. 

The average amount of time given to spelling in the cities 
of the United States is seven percent of the whole. The extra 
two percent given to this work in San Antonio costs the city an 
extra $9,000. This might well be saved and devoted to other 
needed things. 



104 CHAPTER VII. 

In order to ascertain the efficiency of the results in San 
Antonio in spelling a test that has been standardized was given. 
This test consists of one hundred common words practically all 
of which are used by children in the first grade in their oral 
conversation, but which are difficult enough as a test of gram- 
mar grade or even high school spelling ability. This same test 
has been given in about fifty cities of Illinois. The relative 
standing of San Antonio in each of the grades as compared with 
these fifty cities is shown in Chart I. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 



105 



6>='/£"^/L/A/<r /4&/i-/TK &r Grades. 



Groafr 222 



<Sr*7a/<- 2JZ. 



Gr-*c/<* JZ. 



&*■<*£/<-■ ~zr. 



<S><rc/<° VTT 



/8 
JJ 7 



<?e «r /& 



ie -4 






/9 IS 

•3 



27 

/8 S /& 



4^£ — e <?* 



A? 



S3 

9 



*7 



^&- 



-*2J- 



106 CHAPTER VII. 

The heavy lines marked M for each of the grades represent 
the average spelling ability for these Illinois cities. The upper 
thin line marked Q-3 in each case is a measure that divides the 
upper half of the cities into two equal portions. The lower thin 
line marked Q-l divides the lower half of all of the cities into 
two equal portions. Between Q-l and Q-3 are to be found the 
middle fifty percent of all of these cities. With this standard 
as a background the standing of each of the various buildings in 
San Antonio where the test was made is shown. Each number 
represents the school of that number. Teachers and laymen can 
read from the chart the average standing of each grade in each 
school, as compared with these current standards of practice 
found in Illinois. In the chart, seventh grade in San Antonio 
is compared with the Illinois standard 'for eighth grade. For the 
other grades the Illinois standards have been reduced so as to 
fit them to a seven-year school organization. That is to say, 
sixth grade in San Antonio is compared with a point a little below 
seventh grade in Illinois ; and likewise with the others. 

In this comparison, San Antonio stands rather high. When 
we observe the amount of time given to the spelling, especially 
it we take into account also the additional time given to phonics 
and word-development, we should certainly expect San Antonio 
to attain high rank. 

How well does one need to spell? One spells in the normal 
course of adult life only when he writes. Naturally he needs 
to spell only the words that he will use in his writing; especially 
that which is intended for the eyes of other people. For most 
people this will be in their personal letters, in an occasional 
brief business letter ordering goods or acknowledging receipt of 
goods, in memoranda, or something of the sort. The list of 
words used in such personal and business letters is not large. 
Mr. Ayre's studies indicate a number between 2,000 and 3,000, 
most of which are the easy words of every day life which people 
do not seriously misspell, if they have much writing to do. 
Probably the best list yet made is the one based upon children's 
actual writing by Professor Jones of the University of South 
Dakota. This list of 4532 words used by children will cover 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 107 

all the necessary spelling needs of ninety-five percent of our 
adult population. If only the words of this list that are actually 
missed by children were taught and if only the pupils were 
taught who actually missed the words, then the spelling labors 
of San Antonio elementary schools might well be cut down to 
one-half or less of the time that is now given to it, and yet serve 
all of the practical needs of this ninety-five percent of the people. 
It does not matter if they do misspell a word in their writing now 
and then. Their writing is for the purpose of conveying thought 
to somebody else. If misspelled words are so rare as not really 
to interfere with this conveyance of thought, no real harm is 
done. The schools do not strive after absolute perfection for the 
masses of the people in far more important things than spelling. 
It is therefore rather a work of supererogation to strive for such 
perfection in the mere spelling of personal letters. 

We are here discussing general popular education, the only 
thing that the elementary schools are expected to take care of. 
We are not here discussing the technical vocational spelling that 
is absolutely indispensable for certain highly specialized voca- 
tional classes. A stenographer, and especially a proof reader, 
should be able to spell almost any word that comes along. Book- 
keepers, accountants, copyists, clerical people in general, news- 
paper compositors, etc., need for their special vocational pur- 
poses to be able to spell with a high degree of accuracy a wide 
range of words. But training to this degree of perfection is 
specialized vocational training. 

When the public schools are accused of not teaching people 
to spell well enough, the thing usually meant is that these 
relatively small vocational classes are not taught well enough. 
This is generally true. In the attempt to bring the total mass 
of the population all to. the same level, the result is general 
mediocrity everywhere, and a failure to reach that high ability 
which is actually needed by certain clerical vocations. The 
defect is not to be remedied by forcing everybody to learn to spell 
as well as needed- by compositors, proof-readers and stenog- 
raphers. The general population is to be brought up to that 
level which is needed by the general population ; and then the 



108 



CHAPTER VII. 



specialized workers only are to be given more, so as to bring 
them to the demands of the vocational level. This additional 
work is a task for the high school commercial course. It is 
distinctly not a task for the elementary schools, which are min- 
istering to the general needs of the population. 

Will the business and professional men of San Antonio 
indicate the frequency with which they have had occasion to 
use each of the following words in their correspondence or other 
writing during the past year? These words are taken from a 
list of about 1200 words that are studied in the sixth grade 
of the San Antonio schools. 



ascetic 

hauteur 

aureole 

phonetics 

binnacle 

embrasure 

thespian 

homonym 

stultify 

panoply 

lethargy 

verbosity 

mnemonics 

maelstrom 

chancery 

myriad 

acclivity 

Many of these words are unintelligible to adults. Practi- 
cally none of them are in the active writing vocabulary of adults in 
general. The 1200 words in the spelling book taught to the sixth 
grade are just as unintelligible to the sixth grade pupils as this 
selection from them is to adults in general. Very few of them 
are in the active writing vocabulary of the children. It is a 
waste of time, labor, and money, to teach the. spelling of words 
that are not understood ; or which are not used in one's written 



antithesis 


vagary 


beneficiary 


equipage 


petulancy 


Sabbatarian 


nugatory 


fulgency 


guillotine 


scuppernong 


plasticity 


monocle 


impecunious 


percussion 


solecism 


acquiesce 


demurrer 


colporteur 


laminate 


lexicographer 


cuirass 


colonnade 


ceramic 


imbroglio 


syllabic 


javelin 


phrenology 


celerity 


argosy 


coeval 


cedilla 


orthoepy 


glossary 


egregious 


lapidary 


piquant 


cauterize 


pagoda 


pectoral 


labial 


landau 


aspirate 


seraphic 


chenille 


fealty 


coalition 


sibilant 


fusillade 


buccaneer 


acerbity 


suffusion 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 109 

work. Children in this grade are expected to do dictionary work 
by way of finding the meanings of the unfamiliar words, and 
then to use the words in artificially constructed sentences by 
way of proving that they know the meaning of the words. This 
type of dictionary work, this method of galvanizing words into 
the semblance of life by using them in sentences, this spelling 
of words that are mostly unknown and almost wholly alien 
to one's writing vocabulary flies in the face of every sound 
principle of educational method. 

How does one learn the spelling or words? Let us mention 
six things : 

(a) By much reading. One's fundamental understanding 
of how words are spelled is mainly developed through frequent 
seeing of those words in one's reading. When one reads in the 
full way that seems desirable in a well-developed system of 
education, the mental picture of most words is so indelibly fast- 
ened in one's mind that in one's writing one will easily and 
naturally without particular thought give to most words the cor- 
rect spelling form. There are large numbers of indivduals who 
need very little spelling training beyond this, — after the primary 
grades are passed. It is less effective with others. 

(b) By watchfulness over one's spelling as one writes 
his letters, reports, compositions, etc. If pupils can be brought 
to a habit of watching their writing so as never to put down a 
word unless there is at the same time confident judgment that 
their spelling is correct, then there are very few words that will 
get by the student. This should be the main purpose in teach- 
ing spelling. The purpose is not that pupils be able to spell 
long lists of words without making mistakes ; but rather the 
habit of looking intimately into the structure of the words they 
use in their writing so as to be continually watchful and continu- 
ally confident as they write that their spelling is correct. This 
habit of watchfulness is to be developed by requiring that, in 
every letter, report, composition, etc., every word written shall 
be spelled correctly. The requirement should be absolute with 
no exceptions permitted. 



110 CHAPTER VII. 

(c) The habit of going to the dictionary or to their word- 
list whenever there is any doubt in their minds as to the spell- 
ing of any word which they are using in their writing. Such 
dictionary work need only be supplemental and occasional. * It 
can be enforced by requiring that every piece of written work 
shall be rewritten entirely if it contains so much as a single mis- 
spelled word. Such a requirement will engender the habit of 
scrutinizing the words as they are written and of going to the 
dictionary or to their word-list when there is any doubt. Merely 
to have pupils erase and correct misspelled words in their papers 
misses the purpose altogether. The right or wrong spelling of 
a single word in a composition is in itself a matter of little mo- 
ment. The significant thing is the habit of looking into all 
words written, and the habit of putting down no word until 
there is confident judgment that it is being spelled correctly ; 
and the habit of going to the dictionary in case of any reasonable 
doubt. 

(d) The systematic supplemental study by the pupils of 
all the words which they miss. This means that pupils who do 
not miss words in their written work are not to be required after 
the earlier grades are passed to study spelling in the spelling 
classes. Just as medical treatment is not given those who are 
not ill, so supplemental spelling treatment is not needed by 
those who make no mistakes in their writing. Just as the nature 
of the medical treatment needed by an individual is indicated 
by the nature of the trouble, so the nature of the spelling drill 
and training needed by those who need the teaching is indicated 
by the particular trouble involved, — that is to say, by the par- 
ticular words that are missed, or before which the pupils are 
doubtful. Treatment must be specifically adapted to the nature 
of the disease and not be simply a general dosage with the hope 
that something out of all that is administered will reach the seat 
of the difficulty. General dosage in spelling is just as irrational 
as general dosage in medicine. 

(e) Phonic training in the primary grades. In the begin- 
ning the phonics and the spelling need to be more or less con- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 111 

sciously isolated so that children will get the spelling of the 
simple basic vocabulary that they use. 

(f) Word-study. At higher levels in the elementary school 
and even in the high school, there should be certain word studies 
of the rapid preliminary type dealing with prefixes, suffixes, 
synonyms, homonyms, etc. The actual understanding of these 
matters of word-study will necessarily be developed in its funda- 
mental aspect in their wide reading. The preliminary studies are 
to make them conscious of word-elements. The mistake should 
not be made, however, of expanding necessary studies of the 
preliminary type into abstract elaborate didactic disciplines. 
This is done in the word-study in the spelling classes of the 
seventh grade where they give a full year to prefixes, suffixes, 
synonyms, homonyms, etc. Such work is abstract, relatively 
meaningless, and, after the preliminary ideas are got by the 
pupils, relatively profitless. 

Who is the good speller? It is one who has acquired the 
habit of watchfulness over the spelling of words that he writes. 
Bad spelling is not generally caused by one's not having studied 
lists of words. It is generally because he is not watchful, and 
has not the habit of being sure of every word as he puts it down 
and of looking up every doubtful one. If one is so stupid that 
he cannot be brought to such a habit of watchfulness in connec- 
tion with his written work without an undue amount of labor 
on the part of the teacher, then he is one who never will occupy 
a clerical position that will require good spelling. The latter 
will be no more a necessity to him than Sanskrit to a coal-heaver. 
Sensible business men should not permit their money to be spent 
in the useless task of trying to give an accomplishment to those 
who will not use it. 

Probably not less than half the time now devoted to the 
teaching of spelling and not less than half of the $40,000 now 
invested in the teaching of spelling could be saved and invested 
in other needed educational work, 



112 CHAPTER VII. 

VOCABULARY AND PRONUNCIATION. 

In connection with both the reading and the spelling, much 
valuable time is now wasted on diacritical marks, dictionary 
work, and "using words in sentences." The purpose of these 
pedanticisms appears to be teaching the meaning of words and 
the pronunciation of words. The methods used, however, are 
not the kinds that can possibly succeed. 

How does one learn the meaning of words ? This is learned 
from frequently meeting those words in their natural setting 
in oral, written, and printed speech where they are carrying in 
sentences their natural freight of meaning. It is through hear- 
ing words used in meaningful speech, and through voluminous 
reading. Occasionally there is a word the meaning of which is 
not sufficiently clear from this hearing and reading. One must 
occasionally, therefore, go to a dictionary ; but only when the 
thought of the sentence refuses to convey the meaning of the 
word. This is the only legitimate use of the dictionary, on the 
side of meaning. One does not learn the meanings of words 
from a dictionary. He learns them mainly from their setting in 
the living speech where they are met with. Even when he goes 
tc the dictionary for a word he takes with him a knowledge of 
the general current of thought in that reading, so that the dic- 
tionary meaning of the word is merely to fill in a gap in the en- 
tire current of thought. A word is not really a part of speech 
when it is not being used for saying something. It can really 
be studied only as it is a part of actual speech, carrying its usual 
load of meaning. The dictionary work should always be supple- 
mentary, and used only as a last resort. Moreover, it should be 
kept in mind that children can get the thought of their reading 
if it is the sort adapted to them without knowing the meaning of 
every word they meet with. The meaning will be gradually 
bourne in upon their minds from a frequent meeting with the 
words in their reading. 

How does one learn the pronunciation of words? Clearly 
the fundamental method of learning the pronunciation of words 
is the hearing of words used by one's parents, friends, associates, 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 113 

and teachers. Properly developed school work should involve a 
wider vocabulary than the usual home and therefore the hearing 
of the correct pronunciation of more words than one would 
normally hear anywhere else. Naturally the school therefore 
expects to do a considerable part of this work ; but pronunciation 
is learned chiefly through this unconscious imitation. Occasion- 
airy children bring to school faulty pronunciation of words 
learned outside which require correction. Sometimes the pro- 
nunciation of a word is required which has not been heard. 
There needs, therefore, to be certain preliminary phonic train- 
ing as to the proper sounds of the various letters and the mean- 
ing of diacritical marks. One must then resort to the dictionary 
occasionally for Verifying or correcting one's pronunciation. This 
needs to be done only in cases of error and of doubt. It is to ,be 
done only by those who make mistakes ; and in connection with 
only those words that involve mistakes. As in the spelling the 
principal thing is the development of a habit of watchfulness 
over one's pronunciation, and a habit of looking up doubtful 
words. Each pupil should have a list of the words 'that ex- 
perience has shown him he needs to watch. These are all that 
he needs to study. 

Taking long lists of unfamiliar words, having them looked 
up in the dictionary, syllabified, harnessed up with diacritical 
marks, spelled, and "used in sentences" is a pedantic educational 
absurdity that is costing a huge amount of wasted time and 
labor on the part of teachers and children and many wasted 
thousands of dollars on the part of the taxpayers each year. 
The schools are costing the city $600 an hour for each hour they 
are in sesion. In the elementary schools certainly not less than 
one-half hour each week is wasted in the labors above referred 
to. This amounts to a goodly sum each year which if devoted 
to needed reading matter would accomplish infinitely more. 

HANDWRITING. 

San Antonio elementary schools devote 7.5 percent of their 
total teaching time to handwriting. The average amount of time 
given to the subject in the cities of the United States is 5.8 per- 



114 CHAPTER VII. 

cent of the total time, or 1.7 percent less. San Antonio's current 
annual investment in handwriting is around $33,000. If the 
percent of time given to the subject were the same as that of the 
country in general, the saving would be at least $7,000. 

In the quality of the handwriting results obtained San An- 
tonio is doing just about average work. The recent handwriting 
survey of American cities by Professor Frank N. Freeman offers 
the necessary means of comparison. The handwriting tests made 
in San Antonio were uniform with the tests made in thirty-two 
other American cities including Boston, New York, St. Louis, 
Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Paul, San Francisco, etc. The relative 
handwriting quality of these cities, — average for all of the grades 
beginning with the third, — is shown in Chart II. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 115 



Gl/^U-/7-y O^- /^fa/V&W/?/7-/A>/G - s4 % t/rrs. 




Chart II. — Showing average quality of handwriting in 33 
American cities : New York, Buffalo, Omaha, South Bend, El 
Paso, Canton, Davenport, Denver, Detroit, Tacoma, Syracuse, 
Yonkers, Savannah, Seattle, etc. The position of the numbers 
represents the relative positions of the cities on the Ayre's scale. 
San Antonio is represented by S. A., — exactly average standing. 



116 CHAPTER VII. 

The heavy line marked M shows the medium grade of work 
done in these cities as measured on Ayre's scale ; the lighter 
line Q-I marks the middle of the lowest half of the cities ; the 
upper light line Q-III marks the middle of the upper half of the 
cities, on the scale. Between Q-I and Q-III are to be found 
half of the cities of the country. One quarter of the cities are 
so successful as to stand upon the scale above the line Q-III. 
One quarter of the cities are doing work of such poor quality as 
to fall below the line Q-I. It will be observed that San Antonio 
is quite near to the average. It is doing work that compared with 
that of cities in general is neither high nor low. For an extra 
amount of time given, it is getting an average amount of result, 
on the side of quality of writing. 

Speed of writing in number of letters per minute as com- 
pared with that in the other thirty-two cities is show in Chart III. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 117 






75 



47 



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Chart III. — Showing speed of handwriting in 33 American 
cities in letters per minute. Each number represents a city. 



118 CHAPTER VII 

The city stands high in the matter of speed. It is possible, 
however, that the examiners were somewhat generous in their 
allowance of time. For this reason before being satisfied with 
the figures here presented, the city should make another speed 
test under conditions that would not permit variations in the 
amount of time used in different buildings. The chart shows 
a standard for speed determined by the general practice of cities 
through the country in terms of which San Antonio can measure 
herself at any time she likes. 

Charts IV and V show how the grade averages in San An- 
tonio in quality and speed compare with corresponding averages 
iti the thirty-two cities. As in the spelling, the seventh grade in 
San Antonio is compared with the eighth grade in these many 
cities, and the average standards properly equated for lower 
grades. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 



119 



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Chart V. 



120 CHAPTER VII. 

It is valuable for the supervisory officials of San Antonio 
to observe the difference of standing- in handwriting quality and 
speed in the different buildings in the city. Chart VI shows the 
variation in the fifth and seventh grades. The standards used 
as background for the comparisons are those of the thirty-two 
cities. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 



121 



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122 CHAPTER VII. 

Chart VII shows corresponding differences of schools on 
the side of speed. The number of letters written per minute in 
certain schools is remarkable. Teachers in the slower schools 
ought to visit them and see how it is done. The results ought 
first, however, to be verified by a more carefully controlled test. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 



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124 CHAPTER VII. 

For the formal training in handwriting the city has adopted 
an excellent system. Although there is no special supervisor 
to look after the writing, yet it appears that the teachers are 
informed as to the mode of procedure. The city has not, how- 
ever, set up speed standards or quality standards for the various 
grades. Such standards are desirable for defining the ends of 
one's labor. Naturally the standards would be for the average 
of classes and not for the individual attainment of pupils. More- 
over, such standards would naturally be different for different 
buildings in the city. 

People should be taught at public expense to write only so 
well as they need to write for carrying on their various daily 
affairs. This means that clerical people, bookkeepers, account- 
ants, clerks; copyists, etc., should be trained to high quality and 
high speed. At the other end of the scale we have unskilled 
labor, factory workers, farmers, carpenters, plumbers, black- 
smiths, seamstresses, laundry workers, housewives, etc., who 
need only to write a simple plain hand with only a moderate 
amount of speed. They do little writing and if the school ex- 
pends time, labor and money in bringing them up to a high 
standard, they will naturally sink back to a relatively low level 
because of their little need of this accomplishment. The city is 
justified in spending money for the actual educational needs of 
the whole population. It is justified in spending more to teach 
handwriting to certain classes of the population than to others. 
It is not justified, however, in spending money on any class 
for a quality of writing in excess of real social needs. The city 
is now doing this. Democratic education does not mean identical 
education for everybody. It means only giving everybody an 
equal opportunity for the education which he actually needs. 
While this will mean expending more money upon one social 
class for handwriting than upon a second class, the matter will 
be balanced by spending more upon this second class for certain 
other things which they actually do need and less upon the first 
class for those things. 

In the elementary schools the fundamental training in hand- 
writing should be the practice that the pupils get in connection 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 125 

with all of the written work that they do. The work in the 
various subjects should involve a fairly generous quantity of 
paper work, — the solving of problems, the writing of reports 
on various topics, compositions, letters, outlines of work, etc., 
etc. All such written work of pupils should be kept in perma- 
nent note-books. Every paper written should be in good form, 
whatever the subject. The pupils should be required to re-write 
it if it is not in as good form as he has done in previous papers 
as shown by those in his note-book. The best that he has done 
is the standard to which he is to be held. When held to that 
standard he will every once in a while go beyond it, and produce 
a paper that is still better. This better one becomes then his 
standard. And so he climbs on the basis of his own work step 
by step to a standard of quality that is considered satisfactory by 
the teacher. From that point forward in that particular grade 
all that is required of him is that he keep all of his written work 
to that one standard for the rest of the year. This plan permits 
different standards for different pupils within a class. It per- 
mits a standard that the pupil can understand and appreciate 
and know is actually attainable for all time. Standards of writ- 
ing developed in this way should be accumulated and kept per- 
manently within the class-room as objective standards that can 
be examined by the children of that grade for a comparison of 
their work with what is deemed desirable for that grade. These 
permanently kept standards should be those that have been em- 
ployed for various types of pupils ranging from those poorest 
in their writing to those that are the best. They should be 
ranged in a series in such a way that any pupil can see whether 
his work is most like that at the poor end of the scale, or 
whether it is like that at the best end of the scale. 

When all of the written work of the pupils is used in this 
way as the basis of their training in quality of writing, much, 
even most of the writing drill that is now given can be dis- 
pensed with. Certain preliminary writing teaching is absolutely 
indispensable in the lower grades. A very small amount of this 
preliminary training perhaps needs to be continued throughout 
the grades for the sake of keeping fresh in mind the elements of 



126 CHAPTER VII. 

handwriting, ideas as to speed, movement, letter formation, qual- 
ity of line, spacing, etc. It can be safely said, however, that half 
of the time that is now given to the writing drill beyond the pri- 
mary grades may well be dispensed with if only all of the paper 
work of the pupils is made the basis of their training in hand- 
writing. 

The writing needed for the class papers of the children is 
really as good as will ever be needed for anything that ninety 
percent of them will ever write. The majority of the children in 
school after they leave the school will write nothing more than 
letters, certain personal accounts, memoranda, etc. The writing 
need be no better nor any more rapid than that needed for the 
actual paper work in the school classes. If, therefore, practically 
all of the special writing drill work of the grade above the pri- 
mary were dispensed with and the pupils held only to careful 
work in their current paper work, enough writing training would 
be given to the majority. Most people do not need to write very 
well. The main thing is the habit of writing carefully and 
plainly. 

A small percent of the pupils need to be thoroughly drilled 
in speed, quality, proper movement, and all of the other things. 
Writing is for them a vocational need. Training for this writ- 
ing is special vocational training. It is not necessary that all 
of the children shall become specially skilled in the elements of 
clerical vocations simply because a few are in great need of this 
skill. In the elementary school it is not generally known into 
what vocation one is to go. For this reason it is not possible 
for the elementary schools to begin to give specialized vocational 
training in any great measure. The elementary schools can only 
take care of the usual needs that are common to the entire popu- 
lation. This means the development of a good plain hand of 
moderate speed in connection with the general paper work. It is 
in the high school where students should receive their special 
vocational training, some in one field, some in another. Those 
who are to go into clerical vocations should be given most rigor- 
ous and intensive handwriting drill in the high school commercial 
department. The thing is not now done. It should be, however, 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 127 

sc as not to force the elementary school to do a wasteful quantity 
of vocational drill work for classes that do not need it. 

Schools are often accused by business men of failure to 
bring up the writing quality of the pupils to a sufficiently high 
standard. This accusation comes because the pupils who are 
going into clerical vocations are not brought up to sufficiently 
high standards. The attempt to bring all to the same standard 
necessitates one that is too low for one type of pupil and much 
too high for another type. It means failure and inefficiency 
of the schools in taking care of the needs of the clerical pupils, 
and it means waste of time and money in taking care of the needs 
oi other much larger classes. For the relatively small group of 
people that enter clerical vocations the business man's accusation 
is justified. For the eighty or ninety percent of the people who do 
not go into such vocations, an exactly opposite complaint is the 
one that would be justified. 

GRAMMAR, LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION. 

The current annual investment in these matters in San An- 
tonio is about $50,000. 

What is the purpose of this investment ? 

It is that the people growing up in San Antonio shall not 
make mistakes in their oral and written speech. It has no other 
purpose. One's fundamental grammatical habits are learned 
through one's social associations. On the side of positive help 
in their speech or writing, grammar can do little or nothing. 
Its sole value is the negative one of aiding in avoiding errors. 

What mistakes do the young people growing up in San An- 
tonio make that the city should think it advisable to invest so ex- 
travagant a sum in corrective grammar? It appears that the 
city is teaching the grammar without having made any attempt 
to find out. At present San Antonio is simply administering a 
good-sized dose of grammar from every bottle in the grammatical 
pharmacopoeia without any previous diagnosis of actual com- 
munity needs, simply hoping that some of the things will find 
the right spot. Perhaps some of them will; but it is a tremend- 



128 CH APTER VII. 

ously wasteful way. Many of the things given certainly will be 
of no service and time has been lost which ought to have been 
devoted to useful matters ; and children are driven from the 
schools by maddening abstract useless things before their essen- 
tial education is complete. 

Until diagnosis is made of the kinds of errors that need 
grammatical treatment the city might do well to borrow the re- 
sults of such a diagnosis made of conditions in Kansas City, 
Missouri. It was there found that grammar-grade children in 
oral and written speech made twenty-seven kinds of grammatical 
errors. With the exact errors known, a city can easily .choose 
those portions of grammatical knowledge needed for the pur- 
poses of correction ; and the city can know equally well just what 
portions of grammar need not be taught. The city can choose 
the kinds of things needed for correcting errors made by chil- 
dren who come from homes in which a good quality of language 
is spoken. They will find different kinds of errors and needs 
of different kinds, in the case of children of the Mexican schools. 
Still different will be the errors and the grammatical needs of the 
Negro schools. The present method of administering the same 
grammar to everybody is no more wise than for a physician to 
prescribe the same series of medicines to all people however 
different be their diseases. The schools should clearly note the 
purpose of the grammar, teach just what is needed, teach all that 
io needed, and teach no more than is needed. From the Kansas 
City study it appears that the grammar classes might dispense 
"with a fairly large portion of the things that are now being 
taught. 

The schools of San Antonio should not only know the nature 
of the errors in the speech of the children and of the adults 
of the city and the proper corrective grammar that needs to be 
given, but they should also see that the two are brought together 
in the way to secure the correction of the trouble. The gram- 
matical knowledge in the children is for the purpose of helping 
them to watch their own language and for guiding them in their 
efforts to keep speech and writing correct. This grammar takes 
effect only as the pupil uses it to keep his speech correct. Educa- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 129 

tion is accomplished not in the abstract learning- of the grammat- 
ical facts, but in putting them to practice. If the learning of 
the school is not closely related to practice, it quickly evaporates 
and disappears ; and the work is mostly lost. The time and the 
money and the labor are wasted. One large criticism of the 
grammar work in San Antonio is that it is not brought into such 
relation with the language uses of the children as to enable them 
to put it into practice. Each thing is simply taught in the ab- 
stract at a certain time of the year because it is laid down for 
that time of the year in the course of study, and is met with at 
that time in the textbooks. It is not brought up in connection 
with the troubles to be corrected just at the time that these 
troubles occur; yet this is the time and the only time when the 
grammar can take effect in such way that it will accomplish 
its purpose. 

Naturally certain preliminary grammatical teaching is neces- 
sary, which will cover lightly and rapidly all the various neces- 
sary portions of the subject. When the schools use materials 
suited to the preliminary type of teaching, and suited to the 
degree of maturity of the children, they can cover a great deal 
o" ground in a comparatively short time. It is necessarily super- 
ficial. It is unapplied. It is merely an over-view of the whole 
subject to provide vocabulary, perspective, and foundation. 
Probably one lesson a week to the subject so organized for pre- 
liminary purposes is sufficient. Beyond this the training should 
consist mainly of application by the pupils, the teacher's work 
being simply for stimulation, encouragement, diagnosis, prescrip- 
tion of actually needed corrective drills, checking up the expres- 
sion of the pupils so as to hold them responsible for making ap- 
plication of their grammatical knowledge, etc., etc. 

How and where can children make application of their gram- 
matical knowledge so as to drive it home? Children recite 
in all of their subjects. They need, therefore, to express their 
thoughts clearly, effectively, and correctly in all of these sub- 
jects. They should be held for correct grammatical oral speech 
in all their subjects. This gives them very large opportunity 



130 CHAPTER VII. 

for applying their grammatical knowledge and for fixing good 
grammatical habits. 

Let us remark parenthetically that this does not necessarily 
imply that all recitations are to be in complete sentences. ~ In 
ratural conversation elliptical expressions are very common. 
It is only an artificial pedanticism that will freeze up the natural 
flow of the children's speech by insisting on the elimination of 
ratural ellipses and the use of complete sentences on all occas- 
ions. Elliptical speech is grammatically just as correct as any 
other; and since people are going to use it when they go out 
into the world, they may as well get practical training in the cor- 
rect use of it in the schools. 

Much of the recitation work, however, will consist of con- 
nected oral discourse. In history pupils should stand and relate 
in connected manner the series of events making up an entire 
historical movement. They should often talk two, three, or 
five minutes connectedly. In geography work rightly taught, 
in civics, in literature, in applied science, in industrial studies, 
etc., where schools are supplied with a proper abundance of 
reading material, it is possible to have individual pupils bring 
to the class a great wealth of facts unfamiliar to the other mem- 
bers of the class which they will report orally. These reports 
constitute the very best means of training in oral expression. 
Naturally here the complete sentences are the only ones that are 
proper and natural. 

In most of such recitations the thought of the subject 
under consideration is the main thing ; the language is but the 
instrument of expression. The attention of the class must not 
be diverted from the principal line of thought. When the reciter 
therefore, makes a grammatical mistake the main recitation topic 
must not be temporarily side-tracked and attention given to the 
individual error of a single pupil. This is to keep the entire 
class waiting while individual attention is given to an error that 
pertains only to the speech of the one pupil. Such dropping of 
the class work wastes the time of the class and produces an un- 
warranted confusion of dissimilar threads of thought. The reci- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 131 

tation topic has the right-of-way for the class, and it should not 
be side-tracked for anything of lesser importance. 

During the recitation the pupil must do his own watching 
over correctness of his language. This is the only way he can 
get the necessary practice training that will give him independent 
power to keep his language correct. He cannot always expect 
to have an instructor at his elbow to do his grammatical thinking 
for him. As he recites he must know that his language among 
other things is being watched by the teacher, and that opposite 
his name in her note-book any errors that he makes are being set 
down ; and that before the day is over, at least before he has for- 
gotten his recitation, he and the teacher will have a private con- 
ference about how to correct the particular types of error that 
he has made. This after-class personal conference consumes 
the time of only the pupil who needs the attention. It centers 
his thought on the trouble when there is nothing else demanding 
his attention. It helps him to realize that the thing is regarded 
as an important part of his education, and not a mere recitation 
incidental. This realization helps him to remember and to keep 
a closer lookout next time. It also incites him to get clear in 
mind the necessary grammatical knowledge to apply in time of 
need. Then after a few victories on his part, the teacher's part 
is mostly done so far as that particular error goes. Erom that 
time on he can do his own watching and fix the thing in irrevoc- 
able habit. He is always aware of course that the teacher's ear 
will continue to note any slip that he may make ; as well as 
appreciate his victories. Since there are only some twenty-five 
or thirty different kinds of errors usually made, and since most 
of these require comparatively little teaching and chiefly atten- 
tion and care on his part, the length of the task need not be such 
a very long one. 

Many students will require very little of the teacher's time. 
They are the type that come from good homes in which the 
fundamental education of family associations has accomplished 
most of their language education.. These are the exceptions, 
however. The majority will require considerable personal atten- 
tion to keep them to their application of their grammatical 



132 CHAPTER VII. 

knowledge. The amount of work demanded of the teacher will 
depend very largely upon the spirit in which it is done. If the 
pupil feels and knows that there is on the part of the teacher a 
real interest in his problem, and if as a consequence of this in- 
terest on the part of the teacher she is sympathetic and personally 
stimulating, a little individual attention may go very far. If, 
however, the teacher's work is impersonal, perfunctory, mechani- 
cal ; or worse, if she is nagging and querulous, a great deal of 
work may do but little good. It is economy in the end to employ 
only strong, sympathetic, inspiring teachers even though a much 
higher price has to be paid. 

But after all is done, even in the best spirit, there will be 
certain pupils who will not be very successful in keeping their 
language straight. Let it be set down in their case that nature 
never intended them to be speakers ; and that it is presumptuous 
for man to try to undo nature's decrees. It is like attempting 
to make a heavy-weight pugilist or a piano-mover out of a man 
normally only five feet tall and weighing a hundered pounds. 
Weakness should be respected. It should be recognized by teach- 
ers as a perfectly normal thing. The weak should be brought 
up to a degree of strength normal for them, but with no attempt 
to bring them to the strength of the strong. In the plan of gram- 
mar-teaching here recommended, the teacher will not be over- 
worked in trying to bring up all of the weak. To twenty or 
thirty percent of the pupils she will leave a sufficiently recogniz- 
able measure of their natural weakness, knowing that they will 
never enter into walks of life demanding more correct speech. 
Even among the most cultured classes, if one has ideas to ex- 
press, and agreeable manner of utterance, good taste in the choice 
of his words, etc., a moderate amount of grammatical incorrect- 
ness is of little or no consequence. This is much more the case 
with those who are to be unskilled laborers, factory workers, 
farmers, carpenters, etc. 

Another field of application of their grammatical informa- 
tion will be the written work of the pupils. There should be 
some of this in connection with every subject, — history, geog- 
raphy, literature, arithmetic, science, civics, hygiene, etc. And 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 133 

this writing should be their composition. In keeping all of it 
correct, their grammar is applied. It can be done much more 
slowly by the pupils than oral work. They can revise it and 
correct it in a more leisurely way. For this reason, pupils can 
here be held far more strictly responsible for the application of 
their grammatical knowledge. Every piece of written work that 
they produce which contains so much as a single grammatical 
eiror should be re-written entirely. The main thing is that the 
pupil be stimulated to keep a watch upon the grammatical cor- 
rectness of his utterance as he goes along. Merely to erase and 
correct an error here and there that is pointed out by the teacher 
does not get at the difficulty. Weeding out incorrectness is not 
the end in view. The end is the development of a habit of watch- 
fulness. The keeping of all papers that the student writes in per- 
manent note-books can be made a great aid in carrying out this 
work. The other details will be much the same as already men- 
tioned in connection with the oral training. 

In certain of the buildings visited in San Antonio, the 
upper grades in connection with their composition work were 
preparing outlines, developing subjects in the class, then writ- 
ing them out, the original draft of which is corrected, and re- 
written by the pupils. These compositions are then all kept in 
a losse-leaf note-book, — a highly commendable feature. The 
thing which seems to be specially needed is a development of 
such work in connection with the history, geography, physiology, 
civics, etc, so that these subjects may furnish the thought that is 
to be expressed, the composition being only the writing up of 
this thought. This would permit the complete elimination of the 
present composition class. The composition teacher who was 
securing the best results that I saw said : "I don't like the com- 
position work. I can't get the children to respond. It does not 
seem to go. There is something the matter that needs to be 
solved." This is very true. The thing the matter is that the com- 
position work is done in a class where the children have nothing 
to say. Such a situation is the worst possible one for expression. 
The prime condition of expression is the having of something 
to say. Therefore, most at least of the composition class-time 



134 CHAPTER VII. 

should be dropped from the program and the time added to the 
content subjects for written expression there. 

What has been said with reference to the technical informa- 
tion and its application in the elementary school is generally 
applicable to the high school as well. At present one year and a 
half of the high school English class-work is devoted to gram- 
mar and composition-rhetoric. The course prescribes one com- 
position a week in the first year, one every two weeks in the 
third year, and one a month in the fourth year. The high school 
grammar and rhetoric training have much the same weaknesses 
as the grammar training in the elementary school. It is simply 
taught in the abstract ; and this is to miss the whole purpose 
of the teaching. Composition work is developed in the classes 
where the pupils have nothing to say. It needs to be developed 
in the classes in science, in history, in industrial studies, in com- 
mercial geography, civics, household occupations, etc., etc., where 
the children do have things to say, if the work is properly done. 
Four-fifths of all of the training in English expression in the 
high school should be accomplished in connection with the oral 
and written work of the content-subjects. 

But high school teachers are specialists in other subjects, 
we are told ; and they refuse to accept the responsibility for train- 
ing pupils in correctness and effectiveness of expression. This 
is not what they are employed to do. Moreover, they are not 
specialists in English and claim that they cannot do it. In this 
connection three things need to be said: (1) Effective thought 
in a subject is the thing desired by the special teacher of that 
subject. To be such, it must be clear, orderly and sequential. If 
the pupils are successful in thinking through the topics covered, 
then they must think them through clearly, systematically, and 
sequentially. The teacher can know that their thinking is of the 
right type only as they express it in careful, exact, orderly fash- 
ion, either orally or written. As they accomplish their work best 
for him, they attain the best type of expression of that thought. 
Orderly thinking and orderly expression are different phases of 
the same thing. Effective expression, therefore, is in fact a part 
of his work. Effectiveness in expression is the only thing aimed 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING 135 

a in the teaching of rhetoric and of composition in the English 
classes. The special teachers of content-subjects are better in 
position to teach it than the English teachers. (2) It is only 
when the pupils have something to express that conditions are 
normal for training in expression. Only the content-subjects 
afford them this opportunity. (3) Special teachers in the high 
school are apt to look upon their work as subject-teaching rather 
than the education of youth. Even if convinced of the truth 
of the two foregoing propositions they will still tend to neglect 
the expression side of the work as the basis of training. When 
they do so they are neglecting the thought side as well. Here 
we find a fundamental task for the high school principal. It is 
his business to keep the balance true and to keep every kind 
of work going on in every department that needs to go on in 
each of these departments. He is employed to hold the various 
high school teachers responsible for doing the things that they 
should do. If he is unable to do so in any specific case, then 
either he needs to get a new teacher for that high school position 
or the high school needs to get a new principal. 



136 CHAPTER VIII. 

Chapter VIII. 

THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS. 

In previous chapters certain subjects have been sufficiently 
discussed as to both content and method; others have been 
touched upon insufficiently or not at all. We wish in this chapter 
t> call attention to certain matters that have been insufficiently 
treated. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

Georgraphy-teaching in San Atnonio is textbook-learning. 
The textbook used is as good as any upon the market. The plan 
ot teaching is the one that is usual in most cities. The chief dif- 
ference perhaps is that San Antonio has a somewhat smaller 
supply of the so-called supplementary geographical reading than 
the average cities of her size. But on the whole there is no rea- 
son to think that the geography results obtained are either better 
or worse than the average of results in cities in general. To 
say that the geography work is about average in quality is not 
to commend it as one would wish. Taking cities in general, the 
subject is barrenly handled and badly taught. Without stopping 
to discuss weaknesses observed, let us proceed at once to sketch 
a better plan. The city's current annual investment in this sub- 
ject is at least $30,000. The city can well afford to study 
methods of making the work more efficient. 

The efficiency of the work can be doubled in my opinion 
by taking care of two things, both of which involve a third : 
(1) Employing the method of geographic experience instead 
of the method of textbook learning. (2) Choosing geographical 
topics on the basis of social needs. (3) The possession of an 
abundance of reading materials which reveal human situations in 
a human way throughout the world ; and incidentally, enough 
pictures and other objective materials for showing details of such 
situations. 

Let us illustrate first the difference between experiential 
learning and textbook learning. It is clear to any resident of 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 137 

San Antonio that the way for any outsider to learn their city 
is not merely to have a map and one textbook page of condensed 
information concerning the industries, inhabitants, commerce, 
races, the river, etc., of San Antonio. Such skeleton reading is 
a pretty poor substitute for experience. It can be read and re- 
read until the words are remembered ; but the city will not be 
known. The way to actually learn the city is to go through the 
streets, see the people, the houses, the yards, the shrubbery, the 
parks, the street cars, the business houses, etc., etc., and to mingle 
with the people in their affairs. One must come into intimate 
contact with reality. There is no short and brief fifteen-minute 
book-and-city-map way of doing it, as everybody knows. 

In learning the geographic world which lies beyond the 
horizon, the same thing holds. Teachers do not deal in magic. 
They cannot by means of a few passes with a textbook bring 
children to a real understanding of that farther world. The only 
way really to learn the outer geographic world is still the plain 
matter-of-fact one of experiential contact with it. 

Few indeed can get this through actual travel. But 
with reading of a proper type it is possible through imagination 
to enter intimately into the life of the people of distant lands. 
One can do what they do, see what they see, be interested in what 
they are interested in, come into close contact in a human sympa- 
thetic way with the things of their situations. 

Take as an example the teaching of the Mississippi river 
flood plains. In the brief geography textbooks one can be 
shown on a map a strip of lands that is subject to floods. The 
books mention the fact that there are destructive floods which 
certain years destroy much property and many lives ; and tell in 
a passing sentence of the dikes that have been constructed along 
the river for protection. The information given is all true. The 
words and statements may be learned by the pupils and recited 
upon ; but words so learned in the brief textbooks are relatively 
empty of meaning. They do not arouse interest or human feel- 
ing. They can make but a faint impression and have therefore 
little effect in shaping the mental life of the pupils. The things 
evaporate and are forgotten. They may re-learn it later in more 



138 CHAPTER VIII. 

effective ways from reading" newspapers and magazines in times 
of flood ; and then not forget it. But if the scholastic learning 
is only textbook learning-, there remains almost no residue in 
memory. The human mind is so made. 

Rightly to learn the nature of the flood situation in the 
Mississippi valley, pupils need to see everything in the same 
human way in which it is seen by those who live in that region. 
They need to enter through reading and pictures into the agri- 
cultural life of the people of the flood plains. They need to read 
a concrete human story of an actual rise of the river ; to feel the 
uneasiness of the people as they see the rising of the waters and 
read of the rain and melting snows in Pennsylvania and Ohio ; 
tu feel their anxiety as the waters creep slowly but resistlessly up 
the dikes ; to feel the alarm that runs through the whole region 
as the waters approach the danger point and threaten to break 
through; to enter sympathetically into their frantic struggles 
to get their families, their live-stock, their belongings, to places 
of safety ; then to enter into their grief as they see their farms 
submerged, their homes swept away, the long year's labor of their 
hands destroyed ; to watch the subsidence of the waters, to note 
the lands enriched by alluvial silt, to enter into the reconstructive 
labors of the farmers, etc., etc. 

Rightly told, the story pulsates with human interest; feel- 
ings are aroused ; pupils actually enter into the life of the people. 
So vivid is the human imagination, when the facts are properly 
presented, one can actually see the things almost as well as if 
one were present. In such a story the pupils learn of the na- 
ture of the Mississippi river in this region; learn of the dikes, 
how constructed and where constructed, of the melting snows 
in northern states, of the rate of rise of the river, of the degree 
of the destructiveness of the river, of the real nature of silt 
and the flood plain land formations, etc., etc., — the same matters 
aimed at by the bald and experientially forceless statements of the 
textbooks. Learned through reading of the type here described 
they are learned once and for all lime. Whatever comes through 
one's vivid experience is not forgotten. The method means less 
teaching by the teacher, provided the necessary helps are at 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 139 

hand. Where effectively led by interest, the pupils can be 
brought to take care of more of the matter themselves. It means 
an economy of time and labor. And further, what is done is 
riot done in vain. 

Naturally the schools must have the necessary books, news- 
papers, and magazine articles for the pupils to read ; and they 
must have an abundance of pictures. Although the reading is 
the thing of fundamental value, yet the pictures supply neces- 
sary details. It will be found the highest economy to buy these 
necessary helps, even if something else has to be cut out. A few 
dozen geographical topics carefully chosen on the basis of the 
needs of the people of San Antonio, and handled in the way men- 
tioned will give more actual geographic results than several ele- 
mentary years of dawdling over the geographic textbook. The 
school city cannot afford to neglect the purchase of an abundant 
supply of the necessary reading and pictorial materials. To build 
an expensive school plant such as that found in San Antonio, 
to employ several hundred high-priced people to work within the 
school plant, and then not to furnish it with the necessary mater- 
ials for effective work, is like building an expensive factory, hir- 
ing a high-priced body of workmen, and then nullifying their 
labors by failing to furnish them with the necessary tools and 
machinery. A large part of the annual investment of $30,000 in 
geography at the present time is wasted because the brief, ab- 
stract textbook stuff cannot be learned economically or effect- 
ively. It is a safe guess that half of the investment is waste. 
The textbooks present about 600 pages of condensed reading 
matter, after subtracting the maps and the pictures. This amount 
of reading can be covered in thirty hours. The whole can be 
read in six weeks by any bright pupil reading only one hour a 
day. It is, however, spread over four years and a half. It has 
to be read and re-read, and then read again, in order to make 
sufficient impression for recitation purposes. The thing needed 
is not dawdling over empty abstractions, unlearnable as they 
are presented. Pupils need to have fullness of reading, fullness 
of imaginative experience in connection with every topic taken 



140 CHAPTER VIII. 

up. Pupils need to do twenty times the reading that the text- 
books present ; but of a wholly different sort. 

The textbook has an important part to play. The human 
reading described must be the basis of any real fundamental 
teaching. But places mentioned in the reading need to be seen 
in their place relationships ; the maps are indispensable helps 
for keeping these place-ideas in order., Also the reading matter 
of the texts, if well organized, helps one to a quick summary 
over-view of the entire field, and serves like the map to give 
outline and perspective in one's real geographical learning. 

The geography teaching in the schools should be in part 
preliminary and in part functional. The text is about the only 
thing we have now for the preliminary over-view. It should 
be covered rapidly so as to get the necessary over-view. There 
should be little stopping to fix things that are not learned easily 
i • passing. A large amount of learning should be gathered in 
a c one goes along, but for the most part only that which sticks 
easily. There should be no stopping for intensive drill. To do 
this is to. lose sight of the field as a whole. The preliminary 
over-view should look to wide vision of earth relatic/is, and not 
to the details. The study of the latter belongs to the functional 
portion of the work. 

The functional studies should be by topics, — industrial, com- 
mercial, civic, etc. The reading work on each topic should be full, 
intensive, thorough. It should, however, be of the human type 
which we have described, with the textbook used only for refer- 
ence. In this functional field should be placed most of the teach- 
ing. It is not so now in the elementary school. The preliminary 
work is much over-done, wastefully over-done. Little is actually 
organized on a functional basis. The teachers in general have 
not the practical point of view. After the tools of learning, 
this is probably the most important subject in the entire curri- 
culum, yet the practical opportunities are neglected. 

In the high school the commercial geography is organized 
fiom the functional point of view. The amount of reading at 
the disposal of the high school student is very insufficient, but 
the instructor has the point of view, and needs only the necessary 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 141 

material equipment. It would be well if the teacher of com- 
mercial geography in the high school were made the supervisor 
of the geography work in the grammar grades, after the plan now 
employed by the city in securing supervisors for the grades in 
German and Spanish. In the high school also human geography 
of the industrial-commercial-civic type should by all means be 
substituted for the elementary geology now taught, called 
physiography. The intensive work given in this subject is wholly 
unwarranted for city children. In this field of physiography they 
should read the book rapidly to get the preliminary over-view 
o^ it all ; they ought to have even more reading than the text 
now presents,— two or three times as much. But it should be read 
i.i a quarter of the time now devoted to the intensive study of the 
subject. The main thing then should be the study of industrial, 
commercial, political, and other topics of value, with the geogra- 
phic situation as a background. Any needed details of this back- 
ground can then be studied as they are needed. It is the only 
normal way to study them. 

HISTORY. 

The history taught should likewise have a practical pur- 
pose. No history should be taught except that which can be 
seen to have a purpose. The purpose should be to give one an 
understanding of the things with which men have to do in this 
present age ; commerce, railroads, manufacturing, city-building, 
sanitation, literature, agriculture, trade unions, religion, taxation, 
tuberculosis, insurance, public utilities, quarantine, political states, 
music, art, political parties, etc., etc. In these and a thousand 
other things, history shows how present conditions have come 
to be. It shows better than anything else the influences that 
have been at work, and which are yet at work. All the history 
studied should be chosen to give background to such present- 
day problems. 

Naturally the first history given should be of the preliminary 
type. Its purpose is to give an over-view of the world's history ; 
an over-view of the history of the United States, of the history 



142 ____ CHAP TER VIII. 

of Texas, or whatever country is studied. These various fields 
of history should be covered through rapid reading. There 
should be much of this reading. It should throb with human 
interest. It should be at every stage of the work on a level with 
the understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils, so that 
they can read it rapidly. These conditions being met they can 
ccver a large amount of ground, obtain a great wealth of his- 
torical experience, take in a great quantity of information the 
main outlines of which are remembered without difficulty, — and 
all without the nerve-racking strain upon the teachers incident 
to the present slow, intensive method of covering the preliminary 
portion of the study by means of skeleton-outline textbooks. 
This preliminary reading should be biographical, anecdotal, and 
thrilling with adventure and conflict and human action. Along 
with this there will be interwoven the solid outlines and back- 
ground of history ; but these things will not be analyzed out nor 
studied intensively during this preliminary work. The latter will 
be rapid and superficial. One must not condemn superficial 
work when in its rightful place, — nor value intensive thorough 
work when in a wrong place. There is a proper time for light 
surface ploughing, and a time for sub-soiling. 

While the history textbooks now in use are not altogether 
suitable for these preliminary over-views, yet taken in connec- 
tion with certain biographical readings and certain popularized 
supplementary historical books, etc., they can be made to serve 
fairly well for the preliminary treatment until books primarily 
designed for this work can be at hand. The first half of the 
history of Texas which is now being used indicates better than 
any of the other texts the kind of reading that is needed for the 
preliminary survey in every historical field. The one criticism 
to be made of this Texas history is the brevity of treatment. In 
proportion as it is condensed it becomes abstract and impersonal 
and loses in human interest. The result is that it cannot be taken 
ir with sufficient ease of understanding as to permit rapid and 
copious reading. The work tends to be slowed down. There is 
dearth of the experiential element. The pupils are expected to 
learn the text, to memorize all of the details, to give them forth 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 143 

completely in their recitations, and upon their examinations. In 
the preliminary stage of learning, such intensive analytic study 
paragraph by paragraph is altogether undesirable. 

In order to use the textbooks for the preliminary portion, 
they can be read much more rapidly than at present, and then 
supplemented all along the line with three times as much addi- 
tional reading from historical readers. Then taking, the entire 
history course, elementary and high school, the whole of this 
preliminary study should be done in but a fraction of the time 
now given to it. Children can do it when reading is provided 
that is adapted to their natures and interest. 

The time saved is to be given to functional historical work, — 
the study of the historical background of the thousand and one 
present-day conditions. This should perhaps begin in the gram- 
mar grades in some degree, and expand rapidly through the 
high school. History of what we have called the preliminary 
type might well occupy all the history time in the intermediate 
grades, most of it through the grammar grades, and but a minor 
fraction of it in the high school. 

A good example of the functional problem is the history 
of the Texas school system. This is -a topic of large present 
social significance to Texas people. It is very complicated as 
it now stands. These complications cannot be properly under- 
stood except as one studies the influences that have been at work 
in the state, which have brought the present situation into being. 
For example, to understand the present enormous school fund 
of Texas and fully to appreciate it, it is necessary to go back 
to the provisions for education made by the early Texas Republic ; 
to note the way it was taken care of in the first Texas state con- 
stitution and to note how it has grown step by step from these 
early beginnings to its present gigantic proportions. In the 
same way, to understand the present situation, it is necessary to 
t^ke up the history of school taxation in the state, the history 
o\ the growth of school buildings, of school attendance, of normal 
school education, of university education, of agricultural and 
mechanical education, etc., etc. The problem is a worthy one 
for the high school. It would be infinitely better than wasting 



144 CHAPTER VIII. 

time over the intensive study of the political struggles of ancient 
Rome, or the details of the savage campaigns of the Middle Ages. 

Other possible topics have already been enumerated. The 
school people ought to take the list of civic topics, health topics, 
industrial topics, etc., the understanding of which appears desir- 
able for the community, and provide library reading materials 
for giving each of them, so far as practicable, a historical back- 
ground and setting. A practical community should see that the 
work is rightly purposeful and make this one of the conditions 
of financial support. 

To the specialist in history the preliminary and the func- 
tional for his own special labors are one and the same thing. 
The historian, therefore, almost without exception over-values 
the preliminary, and over-develops it, and insists that it shall be 
intensively and thoroughly studied and digested without in- 
quiring whether there is any practical relation to current-day 
problems. He grows eloquent over the demoralization of history 
that will grow out of such a plan as recommended here. If such 
a plan is introduced, unless supervised by superintendent and 
principal, he is apt usually to continue to overdo the preliminary 
ard to neglect the functional. The most progressive leaders in 
the historical field, however, are changing their minds on this 
particular point. The recent National Education Association 
Committee on the Reorganization of the History Teaching in 
the High School, recommends that first year of work be a pre- 
liminary over-view of all of the world's history down to about 
1700. They then recommend a more intensive study, more nearly 
of the functional type covering the last two centuries by way of 
showing the historical background and genesis of present-day 
conditions. These leading historians have come practically to the 
plan of work which we have above described ; not wholly, how- 
ever, because of the administrative division between elementary 
and high schools. They probably are not placing the preliminary 
quite properly, probably somewhat over-developing it, and some- 
what under-developing the functional. It is, however, a long 
step in the direction that San Antonio ought to take in its history 
teaching. 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 145 

The San Antonio high school is wastefully overdoing the 
preliminary historical studies of ancient, medieval, and modern 
European history. This history is required of all students and 
takes two years of their time. This amount of history should be 
required of all high school students ; and in their preliminary 
over-view of the world's history they should perhaps read very 
much more than the twelve hundred pages of their present text- 
books. They should do it, however, in one semester, and not in 
four. Twelve hundred pages of historical materials, written in 
a manner suitable for students of the high school age, can be 
read in sixty hours, — that is to say, it can be read in three school 
months, if read at the rate of one hour per school day. It is 
wrongly using such preliminary material to spread it out over 
two full years. This is prescribing about ten minutes of reading 
for each school day of the two years. To have it read and re- 
read, swallowed and regurgitated, is to miss the right use and 
right method to be employed with the preliminary aspects of the 
study. Until the elementary school can take care more ade- 
quately of the earlier portions of general world-history, leaving 
the functional studies for the high school, we recommend that 
the general over-view of the world's history now accomplished 
in two years in the high school be reduced to one year, covering 
the same ground. When this same material is spread more thinly 
su as to cover three semesters, the law of diminishing returns 
sets in heavily, so that not much more actual results can be, 
accomplished in the three terms than in the two semesters recom- 
mended. A fourth semester to this same body of material is 
mostly wasted unless the whole is heavily supplemented with 
further historical readings. This is not now done because of 
the almost total lack of library books of a historical nature, and 
the lack of library space for so many historical students. The 
city is now investing in the preliminary teaching of history a 
fairly large sum. It is a safe guess that under the circumstances 
half of this is waste. This is not in criticism of the 
ability of the teachers. They impress one as distinctly 
capable. Simply, they are using a wrong plan and lack 
necessary material helps. Blame for such a situation 



146 CHAPTER VIII. 

must be pretty widely distributed. Perhaps there should 
not be any blame. One should look at the present situa- 
tion as one stage of growth in which most of the high schools 
of the entire country are found ; a stage of growth through which 
the high schools must necessarily pass before reaching the next 
one. The next one is now clearly in sight, and is being pointed 
out by many of the leaders of our profession. Primary responsi- 
bility for taking the next step rests upon those in supervisory 
authority, whom the city has made responsible for the general 
plans of the work. Only secondarily does it rest upon the 
special teachers of the subject. We are not here recommending 
that the historical course in the high school be reduced to one 
year. It should be as long as at present. In fact even though 
impossible under present administrative conditions there ought 
to be in time history work for every high school student in each of 
the four years ; but after the first year of general historical 
survey, we would recommend for the other semesters historical 
studies of the functional type such as recommended by our 
National Education Association Committee, such as exemplified 
in certain of our industrial histories, histories of commerce, etc. 

An objection that will be urged is that this mode of teach- 
ing will involve one in difficulty who is going to college. It 
may. It certainly will in some cases. There is a good deal of 
mediaevalism yet in the college field, but I can see no reason 
why the business men of San Antonio should pay their much- 
needed money for the continued support of college mediaevalism. 
Even if they wish to do so, they should remember that the large 
majority of the high school students of San Antonio do not go 
to college. The high schools might at least prepare functional 
and purposeful history courses for this majority. 

To modernize the history in San Antonio and to save half 
the waste that is now going on, the first necessary thing is that 
the supervisory officials get the functional point of view ; a 
second thing is that the teachers acquire the functional point of 
view ; and the third is that the necessary books, maps, pictures, 
be supplied in sufficient abundance to take care of the needs of 
al 1 of the students. For its new buildings the city at the present 



THE TEACHING OF CERT AIN SUBJECTS 147 

time is buying the most modern type of furniture and appliances. 
For the instructional work the city should likewise purchase the 
most modern type of educational tools and appliances. Let the 
city economize on buildings, on furniture and material equip- 
ment ; on abbreviation of the course of study so that children can 
finish somewhat earlier and thus the city need fewer class-rooms 
and fewer teachers for a given number of pupils ; but let them 
not economize on the indispensable materials of instruction. For 
the history the major things are properly written books, maga- 
zines, newspaper articles, government bulletins, etc. Second 
after these for purposes of making clear the details of the read- 
ing, are an abundance of maps, charts, pictures, models, etc. 



MATHEMATICS. 

Arithmetic. — The textbooks in arithmetic in the elementary 
school are of standard quality. In the fundamental operations, 
much additional work is given by way of rapid intensive drills 
for speed and accuracy. Considered simply as textbook and drill 
teaching, the city is certainly doing as well as cities in general. 
One observes in the buildings about that same proportion of 
superior work and of inferior work that one expects to find 
where average work is being done. 

The results of the training in the fundamental operations 
of arithmetic, both whole numbers and fractions, were measured 
by means of tests made up of standard units. The average 
ability of the San Antonio children in performing the various op- 
erations is shown in the following tables. They are so arranged 
that comparisons can be made with the identical tests made in 
certain large buildings in Chicago. Each San Antonio grade 
is compared with the Chicago grade next higher in number- 
seventh with eighth, sixth with seventh, etc., — without any re- 
ductions as in the .case of the spelling and handwriting. The 
numbers represent the average number of standard problems 
solved correctly in the allotted time, 



148 CHAPTER VIII. 



Column Addition. 



IV V 

San Antonio 7.8 7.8 

Chicago 7.3 7.9 

Subtraction, long problems. 

IV V 

San Antonio 4.8 5.4 

Chicago 3.5 4.8 

Multiplication. 

IV V 

San Antonio 3.9 4.7 

Chicago 4.3 5 .4 

Short Division. 

IV V 

San Antonio 1.5 2.6 

Chicago 2.8 3.5 

Long Division. 

IV V 

San Antonio 1.0 1.3 

Chicago 1 .2 1.5 

Addition of Fractions. 

V 

San Antonio 7.4 

Chicago 7.1 

Subtraction of Fractions. 

V 

San Antonio 9.2 

Chicago ^>.3 



VI 


VII 


9.2 


9.5 


9.7 


10.3 


VI 


VII 


6.6 


7.2 


5.4 


7.0 


VI 


VII 


5.9 


6.2 


6.1 


6.0 


VI 


VII 


4.0 


4.7 


4.4 


4.8 


VI 


VII 


1.9 


2.5 


1.8 


2.3 


VI 


VII 


9.0 


8.6 


8.5 


10.7 


VI 


VII 


10.9 


10.5 


10.6 


12.3 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 149 

Multiplication of Fractions. 

V VI VII 

San Antonio 4.9 7.9 10.6 

Chicago ' '. 3.2 7.0 9.0 

Division of Fractions. 

V VI VII 

San Antonio 4.6 7.6 10.2 

Chicago 3.9 6.1 6.5 

The results of the tests were equated with those of Mr. 
Courtis in the four fundamental operations with integers for 
Boston, New York, Detroit, Butte, and other cities. It appears 
that San Antonio is getting about averag*e results as compared 
with other cities in the country. This is being done in a seven- 
year course, too, instead of an eight-year course ; although the 
children are of the same degree of maturity, a year being saved 
by entering one year late ; at seven instead of six. 

This does not mean, however, that the work is all that it 
might be. It is far from that in the cities in general of the 
United States. Throughout the country the supplemental arith- 
metic work of the schools does not grow sufficiently out of the 
fundamental number-thinking of the community ; the prelim- 
inary work tends everywhere to be over-developed by including 
too many kinds of topics ; by using numbers that are too large 
ard complicated for children's thinking ; by introducing prob- 
iems of a subtlety and degree of complexity that have no place 
in the rapid preliminary training ; and finally, the functional 
arithmetical training which should be the largest and most 
serious part of the study is almost wholly non-existent; in its 
place there exists the false substitute of imaginary so-called 
reasoning problems with which the arithmetic books are so full. 
A good cmantity of these imaginary problems actually belong in 
die rapid preliminary work, — easy problems using small num- 
bers for the sake of learning the operations. Such problems, 
however, cannot possibly be made to serve for functional supple- 



150 CHAPTER VIII. 

mental training. This latter must grow out of the fundamental 
number thinking of the community. 

The city is doing a large part of the preliminary work in 
very effective fashion ; much rapid oral work with tables ; rapid 
practice with easy problems in all the fundamental operations ; 
rapid oral reasoning problems using numbers of manageable 
size ; using the reasoning problems of the textbooks for expla- 
nation of the processes without performing the operations with 
the large numbers involved ; much oral arithmetical drill, etc. 
All this naturally should continue. The classes, however, should 
be supplied with certain printed helps for the work, which they 
do not now have. For drill in speed and accuracy in multiplica- 
tion, let us say, there should be at the disposal of the class 
printed sheets containing the problems ready for the solution. 
Each pupil is given one of the sheets containing on it a large 
number of problems with space for the multiplication. He gets 
a large amount of drill by working all the problems on the page 
before him. The advantage of having the problems ready 
printed with spaces for the solution are: (1) The teacher does 
not have to copy the problems on the black-board and thus her 
time is saved for needful work. (2) The time of the pupils 
is saved, since they do not have to copy the long list of problems. 
This copying is not of educational value. (3) With such an 
abundance of helps, less oral work is needed. This further saves 
the expensive time of the teacher. (4) All of the pupils can 
be actually working at one time, and not merely passively list- 
ening to what others are doing when the work is of the oral type. 
The paper used for such work need cost no more than paper used 
for arithmetic work at present. The added expense of the print- 
ing is small when done in large quantities. The twenty-five 
percent increased efficiency in the drill in fundamental opera- 
tions will pay the added expense many times over. The same 
results now had can be had in considerably less time. In certain 
cities these drill helps are in part supplied by the school printing 
presses used in the manual-training printing work. In other 
cities the helps are obtained from certain publishing houses. 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 151 

After the preliminary work has laid a solid foundation 
in speed and accuracy in the performance of the basic operations 
of arithmetic, the practical or functional arithmetic should be 
developed. This should grow out of things with which the chil- 
dren have to do. Many of the school yards, for example, require 
filling and leveling. Let the pupils calculate the cost of the 
work. Let them calculate the number of cubic yards of gravel 
needed, the capacity of the wagons used for the hauling, the 
number of loads to be hauled, the cost of the hauling, etc. Let 
the girls in the domestic science classes do the marketing, the 
cooking, the serving, and calculate accurately the cost of pro- 
viding the meals they serve to each other, to the teachers, to the 
school board, etc. Let the boys in constructing a school fence 
perform all the various calculations connected with the work. 
Let the pupils make arithmetical studies in connection with such 
matters as the following: the family grocer account, the family 
fuel supply, rent, taxes, insurance, illuminating gas, electric 
light, water supply, street paving, street cleaning, city lighting, 
etc., etc. The possible list is a long one. 

Much of the functional arithmetic will develop better in the 
civic and vocational classes than in the arithmetic class. But 
it cannot be developed except as these subjects* are rightly de- 
veloped at the same time. Arithmetic should not be mainly a 
matter of solving hard problems. After a certain point in the 
course is reached, it should be mainly a matter of accurate 
numerical thinking. The problem-solving normally is incidental, 
by way of making reductions, summations, etc., needed in one's 
thought and in one's work. A banker or a contractor, a mer- 
chant or real estate man, must do very much of his thinking in 
exact mathematical terms. Certainly he must be able to make 
any necessary, computations with a fair degree of accuracy and 
speed. But these are not for him the principal things. While 
they are important they are still incidental to the main current 
of his thought and his work. The computations are meaningless 
except as they are part of this real thought and work. 

High School Mathematics. — The mathematics needed by the 
majority of high school students consists of numerous applica- 



152 CHAPT ER VIII. 

tions of arithmetic to the multitudinous problems of practical 
affairs. For the girls there can be no justification for any other 
kind of mathematics. For the boys going into agriculture, 
commercial, clerical, transportation vocations and most of the 
trades and professions, the same thing can be said. The city is 
now investing a large sum in high school algebra and geometry. 
Eighty percent of the boys and one hundred percent of the girls 
upon whom this money is spent would be ten years hence just as 
well off if the money were saved. They would be much better off 
if it were expended upon the study of the practical civic, social, 
industrial, recreational, and other matters which are greatly 
needed by this rising generation of young people in San Antonio. 
This recommendation will appear so absurd to many that I make 
this further recommendation: Get the opinion on this topic of 
intelligent leaders of thought in this country, educational leaders 
as well as leaders among public-spirited, social-minded laymen. 
The amount of money annually invested and the amount of 
teacher and student labor annually consumed in what is here pro- 
nounced unjustifiable studies for most students is large enough 
to justify such an investigation. Also, consult any group of lay- 
men of San Antonio who are graduates of the high school as 
to the degree in which they have ever used their algebra or the 
demonstrational aspects of their geometry. 

Of course many will refer to the disciplinary value of 
algebra for strengthening the mind. Naturally it has a little 
value of that sort, but there is no reason to think that the learn- 
ing of useless things is any better for strengthening the mind 
than the learning of useful things. Quite the reverse. 

There are some who should study algebra and geometry for 
vocational purposes. For these, much the same thing can be 
said for the higher mathematics that was said for arithmetic. 
There should be in both subjects certain preliminary work giv- 
ing an over-view of things that lie within these mathematical 
fields, for the sake of perspective. This preliminary study will 
necessarily be without reference to practical application. It 
should be rapid. It should not be deep or intensive. It will be 
preparatory for practical application. After this basic founda- 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 153 

tion is laid, then, the algebraic and geometrical work should cer- 
tainly be of the practical applied type. The preliminary will 
not close at any certain point in the course and the practical 
teaching continue from that point. The preliminary will be large 
ir the beginning and will gradually diminish throughout one's 
mathematical course. The practical should be introduced in 
some measure as early as possible, and gradually expand 
throughout the course. Recent books on shop mathematics give 
a minimum of the elements of algebra and geometry in the be- 
ginning; and after this basis if the subject is laid, the work is 
functional, applied, and practical. 

Is no subject to be taught merely for the municipal luxury 
of spending money upon useless things? If cities are to limit 
this form of indulgence anywhere, it would seem that it should 
be in the field of education. It is not so much a matter of the 
money wasted. It is youth that cannot afford to have its irre- 
coverable time so squandered. 

SCIENCE. 

One's fundamental knowledge of science is obtained from 
one's daily experience with things ; wind, rain, sun-light, grass 
and trees, electric light, fuel combustion, machines, phonographs, 
food and drink, dust, bacteria, organic decay, lenses, water mains, 
gas supply, etc., etc. Everything with which one comes into 
contact is a complex of materials and forces treated in science ; 
and science treats of nothing else except these things that are 
interwoven in the experiences of daily life. While one gets 
acquainted in a rough way with the materials and forces of 
the world of science in this out-of-school experience, the various 
matters are so complicated that they need to be taken up one 
after another in the school and analyzed into their elements, 
and these elements studied in relation to the total situation be- 
fore one's knowledge is at all adequate or complete. It is how- 
ever, the fundamental things of one's own daily experience that 
should be the science matters analyzed and in connection with 
which all of the elements of the sciences are learned. The pro- 



154 CHAPTER VIII. 

spective mechanic, therefore, will analyze situations relating to 
tools, machines, electricity, chemistry of metals used in mechani- 
cal industry, etc. The prospective housewife will find as science 
studies, the nature of food, heat, electricity, the physics of house- 
hold appliances, bacteriological study of molds, yeast, mildews, 
the chemistry of cleaning, the physics of color harmony, etc., 
etc. All pupils will have experience and will look forward to 
experiences in connection with science situations relating to 
sanitation, hygiene, civic problems, etc. The number of analyz- 
able situations of vital interest to all boys and girls in the com- 
munity is practically endless. The science of both elementary 
and high school should be thoroughly practical, and be but an 
analysis and completion only of that vague unanalyzed science 
knowledge which is got in a wide daily experience. 

There is, however, the usual qualification. In proportion 
a: situations are complex and difficult, it is necessary to have a 
sufficient mastery of certain keys for unlocking them. The 
science-complex situations are made up of materials and forces 
that seem organically related to each other in certain systems. 
Physics, for example, covers a certain field of forces and rela- 
tions. Chemistry covers a very wide field of different 
forces and relations. Physiography handles still a different series 
02 matters. Biology, botony, zoology, entomology, bacteriology, 
physiology, etc., relate to fields each of which has within itself 
a certain unity. Since the analysis of the science complexes in- 
volved in the various practical situations is dependent upon 
some knowledge of the nature of the factors that enter into the 
situation, it seems clearly desirable to have certain preliminary 
studies which give a rapid over-view and perspective as to the 
materials and forces that pertain to each of the many fields of 
science. One should have some knowledge of the elements in 
their isolation before he can analyze them out of compounds. 

The schools ought therefore to give short, rapid courses 
i ; i each of the various sciences. The work will be qualitative. 
It will show the main outlines of what is found in each of the 
various fields. It will meet with the complexities that lie within 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 155 

this general outline; but it will not dwell upon the complexities 
in a degree beyond that suited to the maturity of the pupils. 

The preliminary work in large measure should come in 
the later grades of the elementary school. Where it has not 
been here given, it should be given fast and heavy in the first 
year of the high school, or first and second years. 

In the rapid preliminary studies of the various science 
fields the major part of the work should be in connection with 
things of common use in daily life. The study of electricity 
should be in connection with door-bells, batteries, electric lights, 
electric toasters, telegraph keys, etc. The studies of yeast, molds, 
mildews, etc., come naturally in connection with the situations 
where these things are met with. By organizing the preliminary 
studies in each of the sciences about the things of common life, 
it is possible to be developing the practical at the same time that 
the preliminary is being covered. 

A good deal of the preliminary work should be reading, 
relating to the things of each of the sciences, laboratory demon- 
strations, and laboratory experience on the part of the pupils, 
which will be altogether unapplied, or as we call it, pure science. 
It is not impractical, however, since it is the laying of the foun- 
dations to be used in the practical applied science. There ought 
to be very much science reading in both elementary and second- 
ary schools. The textbooks are of little value for this purpose. 
One needs to have the electricity treated in a readable popular 
way ; yet having the facts accurate in all respects. Pupils need 
to read in the same way a quite extended popular reader on each 
separate field; bacteriology, insect life, the economic and sani- 
tary aspects of bird life, mechanics, heat, sound, light, chem- 
istry, plant life, etc., etc. Schools need to be equipped with ap- 
paratus, most of which should be made by the pupils for illus- 
trating the various scientific matters covered in the readings. 
The reading we may say is the pre-preliminary for demonstration 
laboratory work. The latter is the preliminary preparing for the 
functional analysis'of practical situations. At present the science 
work in the schools of San Antonio is defective since elementary 
science is not given in the grades, except for the hygiene, which 



156 CHAPTER VIII. 

i* mostly textbook work. Fortunately for this, the school uses 
a good textbook. The foundation work of each of the other 
sciences should also be developed in the elementary schools, in 
such degree as possible, both the reading and the demonstration 
work. In the high school, the preliminary work is much over- 
developed. Each unit is so over-developed that it is not pos- 
sible for students to get the desirable preliminary over-view 
of each of the various sciences. Two years of science are pre- 
scribed for all students ; but five sciences, each on the prelimin- 
ary level, and each taught for a full year, are offered. Students 
cannot well take more than two or three. The list of five seems 
not sufficiently to include bacteriology, entomology, the civic, 
and economic aspects of biology, etc. Because of the over-de- 
velopment of each of the units of preliminary training it largely 
fails of its purpose. Moreover, it takes up such a quantity of 
the time as to preclude the development of functional science 
based upon the practical situation in which the students pass 
their days. Neither the laboratory science, the reading material, 
nor the observation work in the science department relate in any 
considerable degree or in any conscious degree to the practical 
problems of the people of the community. 

The sciences taken by the high school student do give the 
necessary preliminary over-view ; but certainly as much or 
practically as much could be had in a half year, were the work 
organized consciously for labors of the preliminary type. The 
law of diminishing returns enters in so fully into the second 
semester of this preliminary science that there are doubts of its 
advisability as now given. The time should be saved for func- 
tional science studies. 

The science teachers of the high school should be the super- 
visors of the science work in the grades. Naturally this will 
be only in the upper grades and carried on by specially trained 
departmental teachers. This method of organization will permit 
an organic unfoldment of the science work from the grammar 
giades through the high school. In the grades, the preliminary 
foundation will be broad and the functional applications will be 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 157 

relatively narrow. As one grows up through the high school, 
these relative proportions will be just reversed. 

The plan presented is one that is being worked out in our 
most progressive school systems. It is not one that can be sud- 
denly inaugurated and introduced into a city. It must be a 
growth. One must, however, see the plan in total outline in 
o r der to provide for the few steps of growth next year, and the 
few additional steps the year beyond, etc., etc. If teachers will 
go only as far as they can see ahead, when they have reached 
that point, then they can see further ahead, and see what next 
to do. If asked to work the whole matter out within a short time, 
they would simply be bewildered and the work demoralized. 

We do not press the suggestion that these recommendations 
be adopted as they stand ; we present them rather with the sug- 
gestion that those in authority over the teaching of the science 
in the schools consult the leaders of educational thought, both the 
professional leaders and the social-minded lay leaders as to what 
they think of the validity of such recommendations. 

DRAWING IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 

Eight and three-tenths percent of the elementary school time 
i c devoted to drawing. The current annual investment is in 
the neighborhood of $35,000. 

The subject has not been long in the course. This may ex- 
plain its apparently very much undeveloped condition. I say 
apparently ; as a matter of fact, I was unable to observe much of 
it. The subject seemed very elusive and with two exceptions 
was never going on in a building during my visit. Children's 
drawing seemed not to have accumulated during the term in the 
school-rooms in the fashion that is usual where superior work 
is being done. 

The training is important. Applied design plays a large 
part nowadays in human life. For many labors it is as needful 
at mathematics or science. For all it is valuable for developing 
an appreciation of the aesthetic aspects of the visual world in 
which one moves and acts. 



158 CHAPTER VIII. 

Although having seen too little of the work to pronounce 
judgment as to its efficiency, I am definitely of the opinion that 
the work in the subject should be carefully looked into by those 
in supervisory authority. The size of the annual investment 
and the probable degree of inefficiency are large enough to war- 
rant serious examination. The main thing probably is to get 
constructive advice as to what to do in such a course from suc- 
cessful drawing supervisors in cities that have had time for a 
full development of the subject. 

LATIN. 

The city is recovering normally from the Latin superstition. 
Twice as many students take modern languages instead. Owing 
to the subtlety of the educational questions involved, it is neces- 
sary to enter into them very fully or omit discussion altogether. 
Under the circumstances the latter seems preferable for the pres- 
ent. Let us merely state a few probable conclusions from such 
arguments : 

1. The major portion of needed knowledge of Latin 
etymology as this exists in English words should be mastered 
in connection with English word-study. 

2. It is admitted that professional men such as physicians, 
lawyers, pharmacists, etc., can master their Latin terminology 
directly without need of a long intermediary Latin course. 

3. A moderate number of students should take some Latin. 

4. Most of these should take but one year; or at most a 
year and a half. For these students' needs, the content of the 
course needs to be radically changed. The purpose of taking it 
must dominate in the choice of study materials and methods. 

5. The high school should devise a profitable short credit 
course in this subject. The present three-years-or-nothing course 
is justified for very few students indeed. 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 159 

SPANISH. 

Spanish is a living language in San Antonio. Because of 
the nearness of the city to Mexico the language will always be 
used by a considerable portion of the population for commercial 
and social purposes. 

There is a double problem. On the one hand, there are 
the children of Spanish and Mexican parentage, between the ages 
of seven and seventeen to the number of about 9,000. For these, 
Spanish is their mother tongue, and all that is needed is per- 
fecting and developing their use of it, and training in the read- 
ing and writing of it. On the other hand, there is that portion 
of the population to whom Spanish is wholly a foreign tongue, 
but who can see commercial and social advantages in possessing 
it. For both types of students the work is now begun in the 
fifth grade, and is carried on in the same manner. It probably 
should begin at different times for these two types of students, 
and be carried on in a somewhat different manner. It is alto- 
gether possible that the children in the Mexican schools such 
as the Navarro and the Brackenridge-Memorial should begin 
the reading, writing, and spelling of the Spanish in the first 
grade at the same time that they begin the reading, writing, and 
spelling of the English language. As they read a number of 
primers and first readers in English they might at the same time 
read a number of primers and first readers in the Spanish. The 
latter to them is more of a living tongue than the former and will 
serve in fact as a better basis for learning the mechanics of writ- 
ten language. As the work proceeds through second, third, 
fourth, and later grades in reading, there can be no visible rea- 
son why their reading might not sometimes be in Spanish sup- 
plementary textbooks. Since training in the correct use of a 
language as described in a previous chapter comes not so much 
from a study of the grammar as from actual use of the language 
for expression, it would appear that with these Spanish-speak- 
ing pupils the recitations in geography, history, arithmetic, etc., 
together with the written papers in connection with these sub- 
jects should often be in the Spanish language as well as in the 



160 CHAPTER VIII. 

English. For these students, both are living languages and both 
should be taught in the way that is necessary for obtaining com- 
mand of a living language. After a certain point is reached for 
these people, not much would be required beyond a continuity 
of outside but supervised home-reading of Spanish books, news- 
papers and magazines. On. the expression side, oral and written, 
the work might be confined simply to the elimination of errors 
of speech. The home life and general social life would take 
care of the fundamental practice training. 

To those to whom the Spanish is not their native tongue, 
the schools perhaps do well in beginning the work with the 
fifth grade. This is in line with common custom in progressive 
school systems. But wherever begun for these pupils, the 
schools labor under a tremendous handicap. A language is 
rightly learned only where it is naturally spoken in connection 
with the things and objects to which it refers. The school-world 
is an artificial world. Not a great deal of the world as a whole 
can be transferred to the school. Not a great deal of the natural 
conversational topics and objects of reference are found at the 
school. The teachers of the beginning Spanish classes are using 
excellent methods so far as it is possible to use them under school 
conditions. They have the school-rooms to talk about, the 
school buildings, the school yard, the furniture, the parts of the 
body, series of pictures, etc. There is a sufficient variety of 
these things at hand for the beginnings of the work in the fifth 
grade, and a good foundation can here be laid for a spoken un- 
derstanding of the language. This teaching conversation is, 
however, of nesessity a bit artificial. After the first few months 
of novelty wears off, and they have become familiar with the 
various objects in view and the simple actions that they can per- 
form, the active work palls and interest wanes. They need to go 
on to new things and new situations ; but they have used up all 
that are within scholastic reach. 

For these pupils 'there is often no outside fundamental 
Spanish language-experience in which they freely mingle. The 
whole thing, fundamental experience as well as supplemental 
training, must be developed at the school. This is a practical 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 161 

impossibility. Much can be done, but there can be no adequate 
substitute for actual association with Spanish-speaking people 
as the fundamental basis of the training. 

The nearest substitute that can be had after the preliminary 
conversational work is covered is reading of a copious, interest- 
ing, and varied character. The children beginning with the high 
fifth grade and continuing on as long as they continue their 
Spanish studies need to have a great wealth of stories of a degree 
of difficulty and of a quality or character fitted to their degree 
of maturity and their special interests. A part of their literary 
training should be arranged for in connection with this particular 
class ; and -to give variety of topics covered in the reading, va- 
riety of vocabulary, and variety of expression, some of the his- 
tory reading of these students should be in Spanish and the reci- 
te tions in the Spanish tongue. These recitations would probably 
best be partly oral and partly in writing, using the Spanish as 
the medium. To give other aspects of vocabulary and other 
kinds of serious practice, there should occasionally be long read- 
ings together with oral and written recitations in geography, in 
hygiene and sanitation, in popular sciences, in current events, 
even in arithmetic, etc. It can all be done by the Spanish 
teacher using supplementary textbooks in Spanish. The thing 
needed is a variety of contacts with reality which the students 
can take seriously. ..When the class runs out of objects in the 
school-room and about the school grounds, they can get into 
contact with imaginary objects by looking beyond the school 
grounds into the objects of history, geography, literature, and 
other things. It is merely an imaginative extension of the logical 
beginnings in the fifth grade; but a sound extension. Current 
events, using the local Spanish papers as the basis of the work, 
may probably be the most valuable of these various reading 
and discussion exercises. We are not recommending that more 
time be given to the subject than is now given. We are only 
recommending that more reality be employed as the basis of the 
teaching, so that the reading may be more interesting and the 
expression more vital. When this is done, the amount of time 
that is now used will bring forth larger results. As a matter of 



162 CHAPTER VIII. 

fact too much time is now given to the subject by many pupils, 
because of this lack of vitality. There are students beginning 
with the fifth grade, who carry Spanish through the high school, 
devoting seven years to the subject. This is entailing an undue 
expense upon the city for what in many cases is a very proble- 
matical benefit. Spanish is one of the easiest of modern lan- 
guages. Most of those who take Spanish as a foreign tongue 
will have relatively little need of it, either commercially, socially, 
or for the leisure occupation of reading Spanish literature. The 
majority ought to get all that they need in much less time than 
is now devoted to it. For a few, how r ever, whose vocations or 
social relations will bring them into frequent direct contact with 
Mexican affairs, the training needs to be full, bringing them to a 
high standard of fluency and accuracy. These are the exceptions 
and not the rule. For them the same kind of training is needed 
as for those whose needs are smaller. Simply, they ought to take 
the full length of the course, while the others should be com- 
pelled to stop, so far as the public investment goes, at a con- 
siderably lower level. Beyond a certain level the training is 
special vocational training. The city is justified in giving spec- 
ialized vocational training only to those who consider using such 
training. 

The need of employing some such method of giving variety 
of reading and of expression can be observed by anyone who will 
study the situation. I visited a certain fifth grade class that 
was being taught by an excellent teacher. The work that was 
being done was .conversational, natural, and of a very superior 
character. The pupils were making large progress, although 
they had been studying the subject for less than four months. 
I visited another seventh grade class taught by the very same 
superior teacher. She was using as the basis of the work a 
widely used Spanish book especially prepared for elementary 
schools, which contains in a condensed way a little discussion 
about a very great variety of social, industrial, and domestic 
situations. These situations are chosen for the purpose of ex- 
panding the vocabulary. The reading, however, is didactic. It 
cannot possibly be interesting to any normal mind. The teacher 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUB J ECTS 163 

tried to use the things there set down as the basis for conversa- 
tional discussion by way of practicing pupils in the uses of the 
new words there employed. The pupils, however, — a superior 
grade of students from the best social class in San Antonio — 
simply could not give their attention to things of no appeal. 
They could not take the things seriously enough for real con- 
versation. The teacher labored heroically and it seems to me 
a^ wisely as was possible under the circumstances to bring the 
students to a serious consideration of the things being read so 
as to permit the necessary conversational practice. Their rest- 
lessness and their indifference, however, seemed impervious to 
either artifice or persuasion. About all the teacher could do was 
to have them read and continue to read from the pages of the 
book. As training of these pupils the time was largely wasted, 
for the majority of them. 

Two things were mostly to blame. One was the use of 
reading materials that were meaningless and useless except as 
mere gymnastic drills. They needed reading materials that 
they could take seriously ; materials read for the sake of the in- 
formation to be obtained ; or readings for the interest in the 
story. When the reading materials are of these types it can be 
made to serve as the basis of discussion and recitation, just as 
history written in English can be used as the basis of discussion 
and recitation. The evil discovered could be cured by the city's 
purchasing for the library of every school where Spanish is 
taught a variety of easy stories for the pupils to read, and a 
variety of subject matter readings such as listed above; and by 
the students bringing Spanish newspapers to the school as the 
basis of a portion of the work. The two things needed in conec- 
tion with the reading are far greater copiousness and a far 
greater contact with actual realities. 

The second thing needed is a rigorous selection of the 
students who take the Spanish courses, whether in elementary 
school or in the high school. The course should be difficult 
to get into and easy to get out of. It should be difficult for a 
student to remain in the course if he is not taking the work seri- 
ously and making real progress. At the present time there is 



164 CHA PT ER VIII. 

a general regulation of a most unjustifiable character, to the 
effect that "all subjects begun by pupils below the high school 
must be carried through the prescribed primary and grammar 
school courses until the subject is completed in accordance 
with the course of study." Students often enter the Spanish 
classes because of a passing whim on their part or on the part of 
the parents. After beginning the work, they cannot drop it 
without leaving school altogether. The marks they make in 
Spanish have no effect upon their general passing grade. They 
simply pass on through the Spanish classes, fifth, sixth, and 
seventh grades ; passive, idle, careless, doing little for them- 
selves, wasting the time of the teacher, wasting their own time, 
acquiring vicious habits of study, acquiring a highly undesir- 
able attitude of mind, and preventing good work on the part of 
the few who actually want to master the Spanish. The evil ed- 
ucational effects of such a regulation for half the students who 
lose interest and do not actually pursue the subject possibly off- 
sets the good effect of beginning the work in the elementary 
school for those who actually want to master the Spanish. The 
city is now investing about $8,000 a year in teaching Spanish 
in the elementary schools. Half of this is not given, however, 
to the teaching of Spanish. It is expended upon pupils who are 
making little or no attempt actually to learn the language, and 
from whom the expenditure ought to be withdrawn the instant 
that they decline to do the work in proper fashion. Were this 
done, and also were classes in the subject organized every year 
instead of every half year so as to permit larger classes in the 
elementary schools, or if the Spanish teaching was taken care 
of at certain centers only in the case of quite small classes, it 
would be possible to accomplish all the actual elementary Span- 
ish training that is now being accomplished with half the present 
community cost. The city should save the $4,000 that it is now 
wasting upon the indifferent ones and spend it for the necessary 
books and magazines for the actual training of those who are 
trying to profit by the facilities so generously offered by the 
city. For these diligent ones, actual results could thereby easily 
be quadrupled. 



THE TEACHING OF CERTAIN SUBJECTS 165 

GERMAN. 

German is also a living tongue in San Antonio. A fairly 
large proportion of the children in school are of German parent- 
age. There is no reason to think, however, that German will 
remain a living language on the part of any considerable portion 
or the population of the city. The children now growing up are 
or the second and third generations. Our American tongue is 
now more nearly their vernacular than the parental German. 
There is no nearby German border to keep the language alive, 
as in the case of the Spanish. The foreign commerce of San An- 
tonio is very inconsiderable, so that it is not needed as a com- 
mercial language. 

It 'is, however, a means of social communication on the 
part of German residents in the city with their relatives in Ger- 
many. It is a language in which much of the learning of the 
world is written. It possesses a large and valuable literature. 
Knowledge of the language on the part of the younger genera- 
tion keeps it in closer sympathy with the parental generation. 
All' these are justifications of the city's course in giving German 
beginning with the fifth school grade to the children of Ger- 
man parentage. If parents are anxious that children learn it 
the work is greatly facilitated, since the fundamental knowledge 
is obtained in the general social conversation in the home and the 
wider social circle. Schools for these children need only to give 
that quantity of grammar necessary for correct use of the spoken 
and written German, to give practice in the writing of the lan- 
guage and to guide in forming habits of reading German litera- 
ture. 

For these children the work can be accomplished in a man- 
ner similar to that already explained for the teaching of English 
and of Spanish. For these children to whom German is a living 
tongue, there should be in the library of the schools a copious 
amount of German reading adapted to the level of maturity and 
to the interests of the children of the various ages, covering lit- 
erature, history, geography, industry, popular science, current 
events, etc. The grammar taught should be of the type explained 



166 CHAPTER VIII. 

i;i connection with the teaching of English, and employing simi- 
lar methods. 

If German parents are not sufficiently interested in the mat- 
ter, as to use the German as a large portion of the language of 
the home, then it would seem strange if they should expect the 
s( hools to take up the full task of training the children in the 
spoken use of the tongue. Language teaching like certain other 
things we have discussed can only be partially transferred in its 
fundamentals to the school. Language lives naturally only where 
the things and the ideas are found to which it refers. One gets 
his fundamental language training only as his language experi- 
ences are in direct contact with living situations. The schools 
can take a living language so learned and perfect its use ; but 
they lack the necessary conditions for effective practice. They 
labor under the large handicap referred to in the previous section. 

There is the same general handicap in the training in Ger- 
man of those of non-German parentage, to whom it is a foreign 
language. The method to be employed is wholly analogous to 
that already described in the section 'above concerning the 
Spanish. On the one hand, there should be provision for the 
necessary reading, recitation, discussion, debate, and social con- 
verse in the German tongue. This will mean a purchase by the 
city for the libraries of a large quantity of German reading ma- 
terial, both books and magazines. The children themselves ought 
tu furnish the constant current supply of German newspapers. 
On the other hand, the course for the non-German children 
should be seriously pursued by them or the privilege should be 
withdrawn. The regulation that the language once begun must 
be continued for the three years of the elementary school should 
be rescinded. Instead of its being hard to get out of the work 
once begun, it should be hard to enter it, and easy to drop out the 
moment indifference appears. 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 167 

Chapter IX. 

GENERAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 

As one reads the minutes of the Board for recent years and 
the published Rules and Regulations, it is clear that the school 
city is fortunate in having intelligent and liberal-minded general 
management. A city that can show so many progressive educa- 
tional developments is moving along the right road. And yet 
there appears to be some lack of balance in the distribution of 
responsibilities. The various individuals upon whom responsi- 
bilitv rests are shown in Chart VIII. 



168 



CHAPTER IX. 



Chart VIII. 



Z. ^p/s/trft//^^ 



Ste/s S<rS?t?a/ (J/f^/ir/s 



COAf/*TUA//rV. 



St~/7<?a/ ^aa'/'a/ 



£~£>sT?m/'f/ffs of 



f/?^ /3<?crr-e*' 



0(///c/!>rps •Scfcyo//^ Jer, 









r//*><? OSS,* 



■>/" f/7t> Ot^ate-et. 









s4rc/?//etr/ 






Sprats*?/ 



Census 



^/fe/-s7&y 



f^r-zr/f/fia/s 






/ =, U / 0//s. 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 169 

In the distribution of responsibility among the various in- 
dividuals represented in this chart, three things can be said with 
considerable confidence : 

1. Certain functions are performed by the state that would 
better be performed by the school board and superintendent. 
This is notably the case in the choice of textbooks. These latter 
are the tools of instruction. Every city of the size and import- 
ance of San Antonio should have the right to choose the tools 
that are to be used. It is impossible to have one set of textbooks 
that will equally serve the purposes of all social classes within 
the scholastic population of even the city of San Antonio. The 
textbooks used in the Navarro School should many of them be 
quite different from those used in the Travis School ; and these 
in turn different from those used in the Grant School. When 
this is the case within a single city it is -certainly very much more 
the case in a state so large as Texas, with its rural and urban 
population, its agricultural and its industrial regions. The state 
does not require uniform desks, uniform chalk, uniform build- 
ings, uniform qualifications of teachers, etc. Cities are permitted 
ir; these matters to fit means to needs ; but in textbooks alone 
which are the most immediate means of instruction, the state 
has unwarrantably interfered in the educational rights of the city 
That neither board, superintendent nor teachers are free to 
choose the most essential tools that they are to use in the work 
for which they are held responsible is a most glaring absurdity. 

There is only one way out, in all probability. The city will 
have to furnish the tools of instruction just as it now furnishes 
the buildings, fuel, chalk, teachers, janitors, repairs, etc. After 
spending so much on these matters, it is rather short-sighted 
not to furnish a proper assortment of the instruments needed for 
instruction. The result is that a very large part of the investment 
io wasted. Teachers' salaries in San Antonio are much higher 
than they were twenty years ago. New buildings and the up- 
keep of buildings and grounds are far more expensive than they 
were then. It is probable that the quality of the results have not 
kept pace with the increase in cost. This is largely due to the 
fact that the textbook situation has not improved in any extra- 



170 CHAPTER IX. 

ordinary degree. The situation in fact is not greatly different 
from what it was twenty years ago. The schools have been 
making rapid progress on the side of those matters that are taken 
care of at public expense. Schools have always been backward 
and always will be backward in improving those things that are 
left as individual burdens upon the parents. The tools of in- 
struction of a twentieth-century character should provide for 
ten times as much reading matter as the antiquated textbooks 
of the past which linger into the present. They do linger and 
they will linger so long as they must be individually purchased 
by the parents. For the school city not to improve the means of 
instruction is to throw away a third at least of the large ex- 
penditures already made. If the school city should set to work 
t investigate and to put into practice every kind of improvement 
possible in the various instruments of instruction, it is altogether 
probable that the city could get done all that is now done in half 
the teaching time that is now expended and at not more than 
two-thirds of the expense. 

Outside of the choice of textbooks, it seems that the state 
has given the education functions rather liberally over to the 
school city. 

2. A second thing that can be said with reference to the 
distribution of educational responsibilities is that the school 
board and the general community have given over certain essen- 
tial functions in altogether too great measure to the superintend- 
ent, principals, and teachers. Chief among these delegated re- 
sponsibilities which ought not to be so fully given over to the 
professional people is the formulation of the curriculum. So 
completely has the function been given over to the school people 
that the schools have in much of the work been permitted to 
drift into academic eddies apart from the currents of practical 
affairs. The schools have been permitted to teach a number of 
expensive things that can be of little use to anybody. They 
have been left too much to give what they pleased, without 
looking to what the men and women of the city actually need. 
In previous sections we have pointed to the waste that results 
from letting the schools force algebra and geometry upon all 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 171 

high school students ; in requiring three years of Latin if any 
is taken ; in giving portions or kinds of history, science, civics, 
etc., which are not sufficiently related to the world in which men 
and women actually move and act ; in the growth of an artificial, 
wasteful methodology in the elementary school. But these 
wastes constitute only half the story. For the other half, there 
is the failure of the schools to put into the training of a 
twentieth-century generation so many of the additional things 
that they are going to need for meeting present-day problems. 
The things have been pointed out rather fully in previous chap- 
ters. 

The schools are agents of the public. The general public 
directly and through the school board should keep the schools 
informed as to what the youth of the city are going actually 
to need when they arrive in the world of affairs. It is the 
business men of the community who ought best to know what 
is needed by those who are to enter business. The committees 
on education of the business men's organizations should formu- 
late statements of needs and give them over to the schools. The 
tradesmen, members of trades organizations, etc., are the ones 
who know best what is needed by those who are to be success- 
ful in the various mechanical, factory, and building trades. 
They should likewise feel their responsibility for voicing the 
educational needs of their class. In the matter of home work, 
i: is intelligent house-wives who ought to know most. They 
need to be concerned in the drawing up of the system of train- 
ing that will actually reach the needs of their daughters. It is 
the civic and social leaders of the community who ought to 
know best the actual needs of the city on the side of civic and 
social training of youth. It is the physicians of the city who 
ought to be able to say with the greatest authority what train- 
ing in hygiene and sanitation should be given to the children. 
It is the guardians of law and order at the head of which stand 
the judges who ought to know most about the things in which 
men need training in order that they may be self-regulating. 

In general, communities do not look at their schools in a 
sufficiently matter-of-fact way. There seems to be a certain 



172 CHAPTER IX. 

superstition in most communities as to the magical power of 
schools to use certain kinds of useless flummery in bringing 
forth things of superior value. Communities, however, are re- 
covering from this superstition. They are coming to see that 
the development of such powers as are needed is as much a 
productive task as the labors of a factory or a farm. The factory 
will produce only the things that are aimed at. The farm will 
produce only the particular things that are cultivated. A school 
likewise will bring forth only the things that are aimed at de- 
finitely. These should be just the things needed; and the com- 
munity should not be willing to accept a substitute with the 
usually deceptive statement that it is just as good, or even better. 
3. Third, in the distribution of responsibilities, there are 
very many easy routine functions performed by the board and its 
committees which ought to be given over to the executive em- 
ployees of the board. For these executives the board-will lay 
out the lines of general policy. It will expect its agents to 
administer the routine matters in accordance with these general 
instructions. In reading over the minutes of the board for the 
last two years, one meets with such matters as the following, 
which are taken care of by the board in their meetings, but 
which would better be taken care of through general legislation: 

1. Approval of the high school commencement program. 
One would think that if the school principal and superintendent 
cannot be trusted to approve the high school commencement 
program the board has made a mistake in its choice of these 
officials. 

2. Permission for the expert adviser of the school board 
from the State University to deliver a free lecture in the high 
school auditorium. It would seem that a principal or superin- 
tendent ought to be able to make such decision in ten seconds as 
a non-debatable routine duty. 

3. Making emergency repairs of a minor nature. If the 
superintendent of buildings and grounds cannot be trusted to 
use his discretion and judgment in the making of minor emer- 
gency repairs, he ought at once to be replaced by somebody in 
whom the board can have confidence. 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 173 

4. Consideration of requests for distributing advertising 
mattter in the schools. Consideration of requests for announc- 
ing things of a commercial nature in the schools. These matters 
ought to be covered by general legislation of the board. The 
business agent ought to be able to answer any such inquiries 
a^ a portion of his routine duties. 

5. The high school asks permission to use its own audi- 
torium for repeating an entertainment designed to raise funds. 
Considering the fact that the board expects the principals of the 
buildings to raise funds for supplementary books, pianos, etc., 
through entertainments, the thing in the abstract is approved of. 
It seems strange that the board would hire a high school prin- 
cipal of such calibre that he cannot be trusted to make decisions 
as to the giving of entertainments in his own building. A high 
school principal ought to be a man of as sound judgment as 
school board members. 

6. The principal of one of the elementary schools peti- 
tioned the board to give the usual Christmas entertainment at 
his school. This could easily be covered by general legislation. 
A better plan would be to hire only principals who possess dis- 
cretion, and let anybody go who knows himself not to possess 
it. 

7. The girls of an elementary school presented a petition 
for laying out a tennis court upon the grounds at one of the 
schools. The principal ought himself to be able to make de- 
cisions. 

I went through the minutes of the board for the last year 
and a half, and classified matters covered under two headings : 
(1) Things that should be taken care of by the board; (2) 
Things that might be delegated to executive officials. Of mat- 
ters of the first type which the board should retain, the list 
of items comprised 35 percent of the whole. Of things that 
might well be delegated, the list comprised 65 percent, or twice 
as many. These latter are routine matters that can be taken 
care of rapidly and easily by responsible executive officers. 
They need supervision, certainly; but the board has chosen the 
wrong men if they have to do more than supervise. The agents 



174 CHAPTER IX. 

ought to be more expert than the board ; and to be able to make 
right decisions more expeditiously and with fewer mistakes. 
Laymen can supervise intelligently many things that they can- 
not do intelligently. 

We do not recommend that the school board have fewer 
meetings, or shorter meetings, or that it take care of a less 
amount of business. In my opinion the serious matters con- 
fronting the school city of San Antonio cannot be adequately 
taken care of by the board in less than the liberal amount of 
time that is now given to it. They need to place the routine 
functions into expert executive hands, in order that they may 
have more time for the larger board functions to which we re- 
ferred in the previous section. Many things have been delegated 
to the school people which ought to be kept in the hands of 
board and community ; and many things have not been delegated 
to the school people which ought to liave been. We are suggest- 
ing that the board give up the petty routine things to which 
they hold and undertake the matters of large serious responsi- 
bility relating to the curriculum and the provision of the means 
necessary for efficiently carrying out the work. We recommend 
that the board take care of the large problems of general policy 
rather than the little problems of specific application. By giv- 
ing so much time to the latter, the board consumes time needed 
by the former. 

Such weaknesses as exist in the schools of San Antonio 
stem to be due in large measure to the state of tutelage in which 
practically everybody from superintendent down has been held. 
The state has decreed the studies that shall be taught in ele- 
mentary schools ; and the textbooks that shall be used. The 
colleges have decreed the subjects and the units which shall be 
given in the high schools. The board has held most powers 
of initiative except as to the routine class-room teaching. Teach- 
ers and supervisors have had too much to go like children and 
get permission to do almost anything that they do. They have 
largely been forbidden the exercise of individual responsibility 
and initiative. Visible responsibility is not a thing that will 
grow in such an atmosphere. Things will not be corrected until 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 175 

responsibility can be so distributed that everybody can bear his 
due share. 

What ought to be the relation of the various members of the 
school organization to each other? What is the proper subordi- 
nation of the various individuals? In this age of scientific 
management, it can be partially represented by the diagram in 
Chart IX. 



176 



CHAPTER IX. 



Chart IX. 



£:&u<r^i 7~/<?/vs4i. S<r//E/vc~£r ^s /7~ s4/=>/*l/£& 



./ /— cfcsc-cr/ztpsrcr/ /^e<r<s/s &/" //re c/rz/c/r^er? c>f //7<f* 
-ZZ. Tr-<i7/r?'r?e? /<&s/<^ /& 6<*> /?<^r/c?s'/77e>£/ ///a/ w/ZZ 

c/<^//r-7/ /Wy /y^e^f //-7e^S^ A7<=<^tf7o. 

US, / A<f /<?£c?r-J~ cf <j C//&/2 /y//?y //rr s?<*<r>s s<r/-</ 



Ca'rvrunr/i, 



ScArco/ 






S^Y <,/ 

43ui/e//ny3 

/^fry^/r/OA 
s4ffw/yey 






T^ar/rrrs 



&#?;/<* 



*/&/?/ /<?/- j 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 177 

Over all of the individuals concerned in the education of 
the children of the city, there is the body of scientific educa- 
tional information as it applies to conditions in San Antonio. 
Efficiency of labor consists merely in obeying the dictates of 
that science. The much-heralded scientific management is noth- 
ing but the management by science. Officials do not obey the 
arbitrary dictates of other officials ; they obey that which is over 
and above all officials. Further, officials do not act only as 
they are ordered to act by persons above them ; they act in 
obedience to that which incessantly sits in authority and cease- 
lessly gives its orders. 

With scientific management, there is diminished need of the 
subordination of persons to. other persons. Instead of this, 
there is the subordination of all to impersonal dictates. This 
is one of the most striking features of organization under scien- 
tific management. The other most striking thing is the dis- 
tribution of responsibility for the details of the work. This 
responsibility is distributed to those who are in a position to 
be most familiar with the work to be performed. In the man- 
agement of a school system, certain functions should be held by 
the community because they are the ones in a position best to 
know those things. Other matters should be given to the sup- 
erintendent because he is in a more advantageous position for 
understanding those things. Initiative in other matters belongs 
to the principals and special supervisors because of their prox- 
imity to the facts. Responsibility for still other things must 
necessarily be placed upon the teachers, because they are nearest 
to the facts concerned. Still other things, even, must be left 
to the pupils for the reason that they know most about certain 
things involved. 

We are thus given a criterion of judgment as to the right 
placing of every function that is to be performed. Yet they 
are not shifted from the shoulders of all others merely because 
they are placed upon specific ones. Scientific management pro- 
vides a democratic co-operative arrangement. All are special- 
ists within the field, working side by side for common ends. 
As in the co-operative carrying of any burden, when one fails 



178 CHAPTER IX. 

to perform his function adequately because of a lack of under- 
standing, responsibilty for performing this function falls auto- 
matically upon those who do understand. Making responsibility 
definite under this plan does not relieve the other members -of 
the organization. When a teacher fails, the responsibility falls 
back upon the principal to get the work done, by bringing up 
the teacher's knowledge, by disciplining her, or by replacing her 
with someone else. When a principal fails to live up to the 
responsibilities which the scientific demands place upon him, 
the responsibility falls automatically upon the superintendent. 
If the superintendent fails, then the responsibility automatically 
falls upon the board. If the board fails, the responsibility rests 
back on the general public to make good the deficiency. Scien- 
tific management is no respector of the legalities of the place- 
ment of functions. The total responsibility for the work is 
placed upon all ; and when one fails anywhere along the line, 
the total responsibility distributes itself over all the others. 

Looking at the matter from the other point of view, if the 
school board and community fail to do their part in defining 
the educational needs of the children of the community, then 
the superintendent and teachers do not escape the responsibility 
simply because they have not received their orders from their 
employers. The body of educational science is commanding 
them to their labors just as fully as if the community was per- 
forming its part. What the community does not perform, it is 
incumbent upon them to undertake. The responsibility falls 
heavy upon the superintendent in such a case. He not only has 
his own legitimate labors to carry but also the arduous and pro- 
fessionally dangerous task of educating the community to a 
realization of its responsibilities. 

When the superintendent fails to perform his portion of 
the educational task, the principals and teachers are not thereby 
relieved of their responsibility. The body of educational science 
commands them to their labors just as fully as ever. Simply, 
they lack certain overhead help which they must make good in 
some other manner if it is not extended. If superintendent and 
principals are both inefficient, this in no wise relieves the teach- 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 179 

ers of their responsibility. They must none the less do their 
labors in full obedience to the educational science as it applies 
to them. 

Each individual, wherever he is along the line, reads his 
orders, not in arbitrary instructions from officers, but in the 
educational science as it applies to their labors. The assembling 
of this science and the making it clear to the various persons 
concerned is no easy task. It alone, however, can be the basis 
of educational efficiency in a democracy, if this is ever attained. 

THE SUPERINTENDENT. 

The superintendent occupies a position of peculiar respon- 
sibility. He is the intermediary between the public and their 
schools. His function resembles that of the architect as in- 
termediary between owner and contractor. He must verify 
the validity of the demands of the community. He must then 
reconcile the demands with educational possibilities. He must 
take all the suggestions given by the community and then em- 
body them in a workable educational program. This the com- 
munity cannot do; neither can it be done by the board. Just 
as an architect in the case of a building, they lack the special 
qualifications for the expert adjustment of the details. Com- 
munity and board can tell what they want; then under their 
supervision the superintendent will draw up the courses of 
study, select the textbooks to be used, select the supplementary 
books, apparatus, equipment, select teachers who have the neces- 
sary qualifications for doing the work desired, etc. Recurring 
to our former principle of scientific management, it is he who 
is in a position best to understand these various technical educa- 
tional matters. The responsibility for the labors should neces- 
sarily be placed upon his shoulders, with those less expert sit- 
ting in supervisory capacity. 

In thus placing responsibility upon the superintendent, the 
board is not thereby relieved. They must approve or disapprove 
of the results of his labors. In order to judge wisely, they must 
be in contact with the schools. They must know his actual 



180 CHAPTER IX. 

labors, not his mere statement of them. They should visit the 
schools, observe, discuss, and lead in community discussion. 
Unless they know rather intimately the way their suggestions 
work out in actual educational practice, they are not in a position 
to approve or disapprove of the decisions of the superintendent. 
School board members are not supposed to be mere rubber- 
stamps, blindly approving or disapproving. They must know 
what is going on. 

The responsibilities of the superintendent indicate the quali- 
fications that he should possess. He needs to know the world 
of men and of affairs as fully as he knows children and books 
and educational processes. He must be an expert in the needs 
of society and in the means and methods of education, — a scien- 
tific specialist with wide social vision and understanding. 

In the performance of what kinds of duties will the super- 
intendent spend most of his professional time? On the one 
hand, he will mingle with men of all social classes by way of 
familiarizing himself with the educational needs of all social 
classes. Second, he will study the workings of education pro- 
cesses as these exist in the various school-rooms in the city. 
Third, he will adjust the educational processes to the needs of 
the population as fully and as accurately as his studies of both 
will permit. Like the expert hospital physician he will spend 
most of his time in studying the factors of the situation and 
in making decision as to what is to be done. He will be an 
observer, an investigator, and a director. Most or all of the 
routine labors will be carried out by others. He will spend 
little time in his office. He will spend little time in actually direct- 
ing the work of the class-room teachers. He will, however, spend 
very much of his time within class-rooms by way of seeing how 
general policies are being carried through by principals, special 
supervisors, and teachers. For this direction of the situation 
and for these expert judgments as to things to be carried out 
by his assistants he must also read widely as to the practices 
of other cities; and he should have opportunities for visiting 
the work of progressive cities for the sake of ideas. In a word, 
the superintendent of the schools in San Antonio must be the 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 181 

specialist par excellence in all the wide range of educational 
science as this applies to conditions within San Antonio ; and 
out of this superior knowledge it is for him to make the decis- 
ions used for guiding the work within the schools of the city. 

As related to persons, his supervision will have chiefly 
to do with the principals and special supervisors. His function 
will be to keep the work of each of these up to standard. Princi- 
pals and supervisors will then pass the things on to the teachers. 

Investment in this expert direction is the one thing in which 
the school board can least afford to economize. 

THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT. 

San Antonio needs an assistant superintendent. In order 
that the superintendent be relieved of routine responsibility it 
is necessary that there be someone of large educational under- 
standing to take care of the routine work of the office ; the 
correspondence ; the consultations with parents, principals, teach- 
ers, etc., concerning personal or other minor matters ; consulta- 
tions with supply agents ; consultations with prospective new 
teachers by way of weeding out all of those except the promis- 
ing ones who naturally would go before the superintendent ; and, 
in co-operation with the business agent of the board, drawing 
up forms and taking care of the work of statistical investigation 
and appraisal. For a fairly large portion of his time, the assist- 
ant superintendent would be engaged in active supervision of the 
work of the buildings of the city. With the primary supervisor 
looking after the first three grades, as it might well be arranged, 
the assistant superintendent might look after the other four 
grades as his special supervisory responsibility. 

Since the assistant superintendent along with the business 
agent will be responsible for conducting what is in certain cities 
now called the Bureau of Investigation and Appraisal, it is de- 
sirable that he be not only a man of practical experience, but 
also be well-informed as to the latest developments in the applica- 
tion of measurement to the problems of supervision ; an expert 
in educational accounting of every type ; and also trained in ed- 



182 CHAPTER IX. 

ucational psychology, educational methods, and in the problems 
o+ educational administration. The chief problem is finding a 
man for such a position. To get a cheap man for the work 
would be mostly a waste of money. While there are many men 
who are well-equipped for the task, they generally prefer college 
and normal school positions because of the uncertainty of tenure 
in our city systems as at present managed. 

THE BUILDING PRINCIPAL. 

Each principal should be to his district what the super- 
intendent is to the entire city. It is desirable that he have 
within his district the same type of social outlook, the same 
variety of social contacts, and that he should exercise the same 
kind of social leadership. He should know the social condi- 
tions and the social needs of his district in order rightly to 
adjust the work. Covering a smaller area, his knowledge of 
people and their affairs is necessarily much more detailed and 
exact. Within his special district, he is more an authority upon 
social needs than can be the superintendent. In the adjustment, 
therefore, of the educational work to his building, the recom- 
mendations of the superintendent must in part be classified along- 
side those of the laymen. They represent the general outlines of 
things desirable to be done. The specific form of application, 
however, needs to be decided by the principal himself from his 
more intimate knowledge of the situation within the district. The 
principal will, therefore, take the recommendations of the super- 
intendent as to courses of study ; and within limits there set 
down will work up details of the course for himself so as to fit 
his own special problems. Likewise the principal should be per- 
mitted to choose those textbooks that will best adapt themselves 
to his particular courses of study; also the necessary supple- 
mentary books, as they are mistakenly called ; the necessary 
printed helps; so far as administratively possible, choice of the 
teachers to be employed in his buliding so as to have teachers 
who are fitted for his special problems ; and the specific methods 
of work. 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 183 

The superintendent's decisions should be sufficiently gen- 
eral and flexible as to apply to any school. The principal of 
that school will be the determiner of the details, — all within 
the outline, limits set by the superintendent's interpretations 
and decisions. And yet when the superintendent fails to do his 
part correctly, the responsibility for the general outlines falls 
in part upon the principal. This does not mean insubordination. 
It means only that discussion on the part of all concerned out 
of which alone the truth and the correct methods will be dis- 
covered. This needs to be emphasized because of the undesirable 
effects of the over-subordination so clearly discernible in the 
school organization. Efficiency and democracy are both pos- 
sible at the same time. 

At the present time the principals are limited in too many 
ways. Principals of Mexican and Negro schools are required 
in too large measure to teach the same grammar, the same read- 
ing lessons, the same handwriting, etc., that is given in all 
schools. The work is often wastefully ill-adapted to the needs 
of the pupils. Instead of limiting the principal's freedom, he 
should be forced to take the initiative ; and then held responsible 
by the others in supervisory authority. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. 

The high school principal occupies a position of great re- 
sponsibility. Within the high school is accomplished the most 
vital portion of the education of the best youth of San Antonio. 
Previous to entrance into the high school they have been master- 
ing the tools and rudiments of knowledge. As they enter upon 
adolescence they begin to take on the adult points of view; and 
their serious education for adulthood may be said to begin. The 
four years from the age of thirteen or fourteen to seventeen or 
eighteen are the most critical of their educational years, even 
though they go on to college and professional school. It is at 
this age that their general outlook upon life will be shaped, 
their social and moral standards formed, their habits of body 
and mind largely fixed. The large majority of them will go 



184 CHAPTER IX. 

direct from the high school into the world of affairs without 
further training; and will therefore need to be well-equipped 
for their vocations, for their civic functions, their leisure occu- 
pations, etc. 

While the superintendent bears large responsibility here, 
yet he has many other important things to do. The high school 
principal needs to see the situation of youth in the city in the 
same wide social way required of the superintendent. No less 
than the latter he needs to be a man among men, mingling with 
all social classes. On the other hand, better than the superin- 
tendent he should know the needs of adclescence. He should 
be concerned with laying out the details of the courses of study 
in all subjects in the high school. He is responsible for the 
totality of the work ; he must therefore, lay down the lines of 
general policy for each of the high school departments. 

Within any given department, the head of the department 
and the teachers will take their readings of the community needs 
and the recommendations of the building principal, and they will 
embody them in more detailed courses of study for the use of 
their special classes. They will, however, confine themselves 
within the limits laid down by the principal himself. His super- 
vision will hold them there, — so long as he is right. When he 
is wrong, responsibility automatically falls back upon them, 
and upon the superintendent. 

The high school principal should spend little time in his 
office during school hours. He should have no routine office 
work to do. The city cannot afford to pay $3000 for work that 
can be as well done by a $1200 clerk. The large problems of 
high school supervision are endlessly complicated and require 
the full attention and the full energies of the principal. 

SUPERVISORS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 

The supervisors of special subjects will look to the needs 
of the entire city, just as does the superintendent; but each 
looks to but a special aspect of the city's life. This they will 
know intensively and minutely. Each should be the first author- 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 185 

ity within the city as to the details of his subject. In a sense 
the superintendent approaches the special supervisors from the 
same direction as the layman. The superintendent sees the 
whole field in balanced proportion, and seeks to adjust every 
portion of the work to every other portion. But after laying out 
the general outlines, he has to leave to these assistants the ar- 
rangements of the details within the general outlines. Just as 
the general community and school board will supervise the 
superintendent, so the superintendent will supervise these special- 
ists, to see that in the detailed workings of their department 
they are actually carrying out the general policies that he has 
from his wider interpretation of the science laid out for them. 
At present certain of these supervisors appear either to have 
too much freedom or the superintendent has not laid out the 
general outlines of policy within which their work must find 
itself. 

Several of the special supervisorships in the city have grown 
out of extensions of the work of heads of departments in the 
high schools to the work of the grades. This is a thing that 
eught to be carried further. The heads of the high school 
science work might well be the supervisors of science teaching in 
the grades; the heads of the history work might well supervise 
history work all the way down ; and so on with geography, 
civics, hygiene, mathematics, etc. It is a method of introducing 
vertical supervision alongside the horizontal supervision of 
primary supervisor, grammar grade supervisor, and principals 
of elementary and high schools. If they can get the scientific 
attitude of mind, there is no reason to fear conflicts of authority. 
Every difference of interpretation means friendly discussion 
until the truth can be found. 

TEACHERS. 

The teacher is to the families of the children in her charge 
what the principal is to the district, or what the superintendent 
is to the city. The teacher needs to be in social contact with 
the families so as to know the special problems relating to the 



186 CHAPTER IX. 

education of their children. She stands to them educationally in 
the relation that the family physician stands to them on the side 
of health. She cannot know how to adapt her labors to the 
situation of the children without being in contact with the fam- 
ilies. She cannot rightly control motives. She cannot properly 
relate the supplementary work of the school with the funda- 
mental educational influences about the children. The teacher 
should generally live within the district where she works; and 
she should know the district intimately. 

This is said with full knowledge of the suprise with which 
such a recommendation is viewed by teachers. Education has 
for so long been within a social vacuum, and with such indif- 
ference as to whether the work of the school relates itself to the 
life of the community, that to teachers at least this absurd 
isolation seems perfectly right and normal. The discussion of 
previous chapters shows why teachers should know the lives 
and home conditions of the children as fully as she knows books 
and educational methods. 

THE BUSINESS AGENT. 

Of the various employees of the board the business agent 
appears to be the one best informed as to principles of modern 
management. His system of financial accounting is thoroughly 
modern. He is carrying the same principles into the other 
fields of educational accounting as they refer to pupils, teachers, 
bulidings, supplies, etc. He is attempting to set up standards 
of various kinds in the light of which to judge the efficiency 
of the work in its various aspects. More than any other within 
the system he appears to realize that impersonal standards of 
judgment and impersonal science should control in the making 
of all decisions. 

The question of the proper subordination of the business 
agent in the literature of school administration remains un- 
settled. One writer would have him a co-ordinate of the super- 
intendent under the board, looking after the physical administra- 
tion; another would have him a subordinate of the superintend- 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 187 

ent, looking after the material aspects of the things for which 
the superintendent is responsible. As a matter of fact, the ques- 
tion is of importance only so long as management is personal 
and arbitrary. In proportion as management becomes the appli- 
cation of impersonal scientific standards, the problem of the 
official subordination of the various individuals diminishes in 
importance. It is transmuted into the problem of the co-ordina- 
tion of specialists of equal rank. The business agent then be- 
comes simply one specialist among many, each having his 
special division of the work. Subordination is not a question 
that often needs to enter in. So long as his labors are in obedi- 
ence to the dictates of the best information relative to the things 
with which he deals, there can be no personal authority that can 
be so good as the dictates of this well-studied information. Those 
in supervisory authority will keep in touch with his labors to 
see that it is so controlled. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 

There is a fairly large quantity of pretty well-defined science 
nowadays relating to school buildings. This science refers 
to drainage of grounds, surfacing of grounds, school fences, 
arrangements of trees and playgrounds, the lighting of school 
rooms, heating, ventilation, cleaning of buildings, the control 
of blinds, the arrangement of the furniture in the rooms, the 
direction of light upon the desks, means of increasing the light 
where it is deficient, the height of black-boards, the quantity 
of black-boards, color arrangements of school rooms, aesthetic 
lines and proportions, etc., etc. These matters of science as they 
relate to school buildings are pretty well laid out in our books 
on the subject. Further, it is possible to have standards as to 
the number of square feet of black-board that can be repainted 
in a day, standards as to the cost per 100 square feet of calci- 
mining rooms, etc., etc., which should control in the supervision 
of the work. 

While things are generally well done, there was frequent 
evidence that this science is not always in active control of de- 



188 CHAPTER IX. 

cisions. The quality of the lighting could not remain such as it 
ii in certain of the rooms if the obtainable information were 
actually at work. The color schemes now so often found would 
not longer exist after the first re-decoration. Black-boards would 
not be placed too high in certain rooms, too low in others, and 
superposed one over another in such unsightly fashion as in 
School No. 6. The stove jackets would not lack their asbestos 
lining. New additions to buildings would not be placed so as 
to destroy the lighting of the original building, etc., etc. 

A superintendent of buildings and grounds needs to be 
pretty well-informed as to architectural science and design, 
sanitary science, particularly as related to schools, landscape 
gardening, and the relation of the buildings and grounds to the 
processes of education. 

JANITORS. 

In large measure the work of principals and teachers is the 
setting of conditions of right living as a fundamental means 
of education. Indispensable in this setting of conditions is 
the work of the janitor. He has much to do with the attractive- 
ness of the rooms, the school grounds, and the general surround- 
ings. He has large control over the lighting of the rooms, the 
ventilation, the sanitation of the buildings and grounds, etc. He 
has the task of keeping down dust, of disinfecting toilets and 
school rooms, of placing and adjusting school desks, of caring 
for the black-boards and erasers, of the general management of 
the basement in those schools that have basements, or regulating 
the temperature of the class-rooms. He needs to know the 
theory and management of systems of ventilation ; how to oil 
floors and keep them in condition; the necessity of sweeping 
compounds and how to make them; the control of plumbing 
fixtures; precautions to take against the spread of fires, etc., 
etc. Merely to be able to sweep a room does not make a janitor. 
He too needs a fairly large amount of technical information. 
Science should rule in the janitorial department just as fully 
as in any other. The superintendent of buildings, the school 



GENERAL ORGANIZATION & ADMINISTRATION 189 

physician, etc., need to call the janitors together for instruction 
occasionally just as superintendent and principals call teachers 
together in Saturday institutes. 

THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. 

The medical department has been sufficiently discussed 
i i the chapter on physical education. We wish here simply to 
point to the fact that this department is automatically disposed 
to follow the dictates of medical science as the basis of all of 
its work. In this obedience to science as the basis of its labors 
v. sets a good example to the other departments of the educa- 
tional organization. It is not true that science ought to rule 
here in larger measure than in other departments. It ought to 
rule equally throughout all the work. 



190 CHAPTER X. 

Chapter X. 

THE STUDENT POPULATION. 

No attempt was made to ascertain the effectiveness of the 
schools, public, private, and parochial, in reaching all the chil- 
dren in San Antonio. The task is the elaborate one that con- 
fronts the census-attendance department, now that the legisla- 
ture has passed a compulsory education law. 

The School Census. 

The nature of the school census will depend upon the pur- 
poses that it is to serve. Hitherto, in San Antonio, about the 
only purpose of the annual enumeration has been the apportion- 
ment of the state school fund. For this purpose the only in- 
formation really needed was the number of students between 
the ages of seven and seventeen. Certain other facts have been 
obtained and tabulated, as for example : race, nationality of 
children, and distribution by wards, etc. These additional facts 
have been little used, however. 

So long as there has been no compulsory education law 
there has been little reason for collecting other facts beyond 
the mere enumeration of children. With the passage of the 
present compulsory school law, however, there arise other 
purposes for taking and keeping the school census. These new 
purposes will demand other facts not hitherto necessary. More- 
over, there will be a need of greater accuracy than that found 
in the usual school enumeration ; and it will need to be a con- 
tinuous twelve months accounting of the children, instead of 
merely a one month affair. The attendance department will 
need records to show where all. the children of the compulsory 
school ages are to be found in any week of the year ; records that 
will show for each pupil in what public, private or parochial 
school he is to be found ; or if of compulsory school age and not 
in school records to show why he is not in school. 



THE STUDENT POPULATION , 191 

More than in the past the school-city will have to adjust 
the size of buildings and the number of sittings to the total 
school census population. They will need to know with accuracy 
the number of children in the district served by each school ; 
and the number of children of the district that can be counted 
upon as a rule to attend private or parochial schools. As the 
population shifts and changes in different parts of the city, this 
continuous school census registration will permit the board to 
know beforehand how many rooms and seats will be needed 
for the work of any term. 

The course of study, we are coming to see quite clearly, 
should be different for different races and classes of people, 
for reasons discussed in previous portions of this report. The 
census should show the nationality and occupational status of 
the people of each school district. Districts largely Mexican will 
need a curriculum that is in many respects different from that 
used by schools attended by children that are chiefly of Ameri- 
can or German parentage, and vica versa. Different treatment 
should also be accorded to children of abnormal type, — the 
cripples, the tubercular, the mentally subnormal, etc. The census 
should show the numbers and the location of all of these abnor- 
mal and subnormal children. 

On the census chart no facts should be gathered except 
those for which there is seen to be a useful purpose. 

San Antonio is already gathering for that portion of the 
children now in the public schools about the proper assortment 
of facts ; and is already using the greater part of such a perma- 
nent and continuous registration of school children as is needed 
by the census attendance department. The work now done 
simply needs to be built out so as to serve all of the different 
purposes. On the present card Form B, Application for Admis- 
sion to School, are now obtained and on Forms D and E are now 
recorded the following facts : 

(1) Name of child (surname first). 

(2) Sex of child. 

(3) Certified date of birth. 

(4) Age in years and months. 



192 CHAPTER X. 

(5) Place of birth. 

(6) Name of parent or guardian. 

(7) Occupation of parent or guardian. 

(8) Residence, street and number. 

(9) School that he is attending. 

(10) Grade in school. 

(11) Physical condition. 

(12) Vaccination record. 

On the census attendance record chart should be recorded 
the above facts and only about four others : 

(13) Race or nationality. 

(14) Mental condition, when other than normal. 

(15) Reason, if not attending school. 

(16) If employed, where and at what labor. 

While such a list of facts is quite an extension of the num- 
ber hitherto obtained on the census blanks, the purposes of 
obtaining them are now more numerous. It must be remembered 
further that for the 12,000 children now in the public schools 
these facts have already been gathered, excepting only the last 
four. The work already done should not be duplicated. For 
those 12,000 children the first census under the new law should 
simply be for the purpose of checking them up to see that they 
are accurate. Original records need to be obtained only from 
those children between seven and sixteen who are not in the 
public schools. For those beyond the compulsory school age 
but within the census age used for state apportionment, little 
is actually needed beyond the enumeration. 

When this work is done the census attendance office will 
have as the basis of its accounting of the school children a card 
record of every child of compulsory school age in the city. The 
card lists should be classified by schools, — one set for each 
public, private and parochial school in the city; and one for 
children not in any school. The permanent and continuous 
census will then present a record for each school that will be 
an exact duplicate, so far as the list of facts extend, of the 
principal's office record cards, — the face side of the white cards 
Form E as revised. When a pupil is transferred from one school 



THE STUDENT POPULATION 193 



to another, when he leaves for a private school, leaves school 
to go to work, or leaves for other purpose, notification will be 
sent in to the census attendance offices and this particular pupil's 
card can be removed from the office file of the school where 
it has hitherto been. When the report reaches the office of the 
pupil's enrollment in the school to which he goes the cards can 
then be re-filed in the proper place. Thus if the pupil does 
not report to the school to which he claims to be transferred the 
fact automatically registers itself in the office of the attendance 
offices. He can thus know exactly and at all times just where 
his efforts are needed for those already enrolled. The plan 
here recommended is simply an extension to the central office 
of the plan which is already in operation within the school be- 
tween the classrooms and the principal's office. It is thus pos- 
sible to keep an accurate up-to-date record of the children of 
the whole city that is to the entire city just what the principal's 
record is to his entire school. 

Private and parochial schools need to be furnished with 
the necessary duplicate record cards so that their records may 
at all times exactly parallel those of the permanent census at- 
tendance records. 

This record will be indispensable for the issuance of work 
certificates to those who have graduated from the elementary 
schools, are fourteen years of age or over,or who are otherwise 
exempted for this purpose from the action of the compulsory 
school law. 

The continuous accounting of the school children herein 
recommended does away with the necessity of making an en- 
tirely new record of the children in the census enumeration of 
each year. For the present, however, it appears from the terms 
of the city charter and of the state school law there must be 
a complete census each year. This can be used for the purpose 
of checking up the continuous census and for correcting it by 
adding the names of all children found of compulsory school 
age who have not hitherto been registered, and for dropping off 
the list all who have left the city or who have attained an age 
beyond the upper limit of the compulsory school age. 



194 ■■ CHAPTER X. 

Between these annual corrections of the census list the city 
will find at first a large and in part insoluble problem connected 
with keeping the list accurate. Families moving into the city 
having childern of school age may not report, and they may 
easily not be discovered. Children coming of school age during 
the year may not be discovered until months afterwards. Fami- 
lies may move without any notice of destination, and children 
may be lost from the records. 

Naturally the officer in charge of attendance will keep a 
lookout for all such unregistered children. He has no machinery 
however, short of a new complete census that will gather in all 
of these unregistered children. There is need of co-operation 
on the part of teachers, principals, supervisory officers, city 
police, owners of licensed moving and express wagons, etc. 
Until parents can be compelled under penalty to keep the author- 
ties informed as to the whereabouts of all children of school ages 
a continuous census record can be kept moderately accurate 
only with a very considerable amount of labor. 

Retardation. 

In certain schools, owing to the influx of non-English 
speaking Mexican children, the number of retarded and over-age 
children is very large. For some time the city has been employ- 
ing for certain schools a special teacher to take care of the 
individual needs of specially retarded children. In this respect, 
San Antonio has been following the best practice of the country. 
The new plan of employing the regular grade teachers for an 
extra hour per day for the work has much to be said in its 
favor. 

One of the practical questions that arises is, What are the 
buildings in serious need of this work; and what are the ones 
that have little nva] of it. ' Table VI] shows the percent of chil- 
dren over-age and under-age, rapid and slow, in each of the 
buildings. 



THE STUDENT POPULATION 195 

Table VII. 
Age-Progress Situation in the Schools of San Antonio. 

Percent Percent 

-» Young- Normal Old Rapid Normal Slow 

System : 5.3 44.2 50.5 13.8 40.6 45.6 

Avenue E 14.0 50.0 36.0 49.1 21.9 28.9 

Eleanor Brackenridge 16.2 61.8 22.0 24.3 45.6 30.1 

Riverside Park 8.5 62.7 28.8 22.7 50.0 27.3 

Crockett 8.8 53.1 38.0 30.7 40.6 28.7 

Travis ....: , 10.3 60.6 29.1 21.4 41.3 37.3 

Highland Park 10.3 52.1 37.6 23.4 38.3 38.3 

Bonham 8.7 65.6 25.7 12.9 46.8 40.2 

Fannin 6.5 58.9 34.5 13.3 53.0 33.7 

Roberts-Beacon Hill 5.5 61.4 33.1 11.3 52.6 35.8 

Burnet 9.4 51.4 39.1 18.2 40.3 41.5 

Collins Gardens 3.4 42.6 54.1 33.8 29.7 36.5 

Margil • 5.0 45.1 49.9 24.3 39.6 36.1 

De Zavala 5.3 50.4 44.3 17.0 46.3 36.7 

Smith 4.7 55.3 40.0 14.7 43.5 41.8 

Ruiz 2.9 59.6 37.5 7.7 54.8 37.5 

Harris 5.2 48.4 46.3 11.8 44.3 43.9 

Herff • 7.5 53.0 39.6 7.2 44.1 48.6 

Bowie 2.1 39.1 58.8 24.4 30.4 45.2 

Austin 6.9 46.3 46.8 4.8 52.0 43.2 

Lamar 8.6 42.9 48.4 11.7 33.2 55.2 

Johnson 1.9 31.1 66.9 17.4 33.3 49.2 

Milam 4.8 43.2 52.1 8.9 31.1 60.0 

Briscoe 2.0 39.6 58.4 7.2 37.0 55.8 

Houston 24.2 75.8 2.9 42.3 54.8 

Brackenridge Memorial .4 21.1 78.6 3.2 36.6 60.2 

Gonzales 1.6 22.4 76.0 1.6 31.2 67.2 

Navarro 3 19.5 80.2 2.3 31.7 66.0 



196 CHAPTER X. 

Table VIII shows the excess or deficit in the progress of the 
pupils as compared with the average of the city. The buildings 
are arranged in the order of rank, those in which the progress 
is greatest being at the top. The last column shows the relative 
excess or deficit of progress as related- to the average for the 
city. 



THE STUDENT POPUL ATION 197 

Table VIII. 

Relative Standing of the Twenty-Seven Elementary Schools in 
the Progress of the Pupils Through the Grades 

Coeffici- 

Excess or deficit of percent ent of 

Young- Old Rapid Slow Stand'g- 

Avenue E 8.7 14J5 35.3 

Eleanor Brackenridge 10.9 28.5 10.5 

Riverside Park 3.2 21.7 8.9 

Crockett 3.5 12.5 16.9 

Travis 5.0 21.4 7.6 

Highland Park 5.0 12.9 9.6 

Bonham 3.4 24.8 -.9 

Fannin 1.2 16.0 -.5 

Roberts— Beacon Hill 2 17.4 -2.5 

Burnet '. 4.1 11.4 4.4 

Collins Gardens -1.9 -3.6 20.0 

Margil -.3 .6 10.5 

De Zavala 6.2 3.2 

Smith -.6 10.5 .9 

Ruiz -2.4 13.0 -6.1 

Harris _ -.1 4.2 -2.0 

Herff 2.2 10.9 -6.6 

Bowie -3.2 -8.3 10.6 

Austin 1.6 3.7 -9.0 

Lamar 3.3 2.3 -2.1 

Johnson -3.4 -16.4 3.6 

Milam -.5 -1.6 -4.9 

Briscoe -3.3 -7.9 -6.6 

Houston -5.3 -25.3 -10.9 

Brackenridge Memorial -4.9 -28.1 -11.6 

Gonzales -3.7 -25.5 -12.2 

Navarro -5.0 -29.7 -11.5 

Deficit indicated by minus sign; excess, without sign. 



16.7 


75.2 


15.5 


65.4 


18.3 


52.1 


16.9 


49.8 


8.3 


42.3 


7.3 


34.8 


5.4 


32.7 


11.9 


28.6 


9.8 


24.9 


4.1 


24.0 


9.1 


23.6 


9.5 


203 


8.9 


18.3 


3.8 


14.6 


8.1 


12.6 


1.7 


3.8 


-3.0 


3.5 


.4 


-.5 


2.4 


-1.3 


-9.6 


-6.1 


-3.6 


-19.8 


14.4 


-21.4 


-10.2 


-28.0 


-9.2 


-50.7 


-14.6 


-59.2 


21.6 


-63.0 


-20.4 


-66.6 



198 CHAPTER X. 

Chart X. 



J0- 



< *"*■ £ 



£/r<zrro r- £3r-*r<rAc/t<rr/Wa f 






Q -j2z H '* h/ « r " ' &** B~,h<„ , 



<?0 



tt 4>n/t7 



/?<//i r 



& 



^^ ate22S?7 



-//? 






^^ */*>W*~ 



-J* 



&r~/$£-0& 



Sa 



/V^t^F/^A? 



to 






Shows relative standing of schools in the matter of retardation. 



THE STUDENT POPULATION 199 

On Chart No. 10 is shown graphically the relative position 
o> the various buildings in San Antonio. One can see at a glance 
where the pupils are backward in progress ; where they are 
moderately forward; and where they are highly successful as 
compared with the usual practice of the city. Clearly it is at 
the Navarro, the Gonzales, the Brackenridge Memorial, the 
Houston, the Briscoe, the Milam, and the Johnson, where the 
heavy work with retarded children is most needed. Now that a 
compulsory education law is passed, the city cannot escape car- 
ing for these retarded children who are within the prescribed 
ages. The economical thing to do is to provide means for push- 
ing them through the grades as rapidly as possible consistent 
with proper work. 

At the other end of the scale, not a great deal of such work 
with retarded children needs to be provided at the Eleanor 
Brackenridge, the Riverside Park, the Crockett, Travis, Highland 
Park, Bonham, Fannin, Beacon Hill, etc. Since there are re- 
tarded children at each of these schools, there should be some 
provision for their needs, both for the sake of the children and 
for the sake of economy. The quantity of the provision should 
be adjusted to the quantity of the needs. In these schools less 
is needed. 

In taking care of this matter, it should be kept in mind that 
the needs and standards of attainment are somewhat, or even 
considerably, different in different schools. The curriculum 
should therefore be adjusted to needs as a part of this work of 
accelerating the progress of the retarded children. Even in the 
same school, not the same standards of attainment should be 
set up for all the pupils. 

Present Grade Distribution of Pupils. 

The number of pupils on the class registers for November, 
1914, by grades, is shown in Table IX. 



200 ■ CHAPTER X. 

Table IX. 
Present Grade Distribution of Pupils. 

Grade Number of Pupils- 
High Eleventh 77 

Low Eleventh 60 

High Tenth 121 

Low Tenth 1 50 

High Ninth : 145 

Low Ninth 211 

High Eighth ' 289 

Low Eighth 377 

High Seventh 278 

Low Seventh : 6 „ 398 

High Sixth 429 

Low Sixth 554 

High Fifth 572 

Low Fifth 787 

High Fourth 629 

Low Fourth 858 

High Third 779 

Low Third 1040 

High Second 926 

Low Second 1 132 

High First 1 192 

Low First 2499 

The table shows clearly that two things are needed, both of 
which are being provided at the present time. One is care for 
the retarded children to relieve the congestion in the lower grades. 
The other is the enforcement of the compulsory education law 
so as to prevent the pupils of the later elementary grades drop- 
ping out before their education is completed. 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 201 

Chapter XL 

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS. 

The elementary teachers of San Antonio are much under- 
trained. They have had on an average only 4.6 years of train- 
ing beyond the elementary school. This is about a half year of 
normal training beyond a four years high school course. This 
is a full year of normal training less than the average practice 
of cities of the size and importance of San Antonio. Proper 
comparative data for cities of this class are not at hand at 
present. But Table X shows the average amount of training in 
twenty-two smaller cities (except Chicago) from which we have 
the facts. 



202 CHAPTER X L 

Table X. 
Training of Elementary Teachers. 



Population Years of 

Citp in 1910 Training 



Gary 17,000 7.0 

Norfolk, Neb 6,000 6.5 

Morgan Park 4,000 6.3 

Winnetka 3,000 6 

Booneville 4,000 5.8 

Chicago 2,185,000 5.8 

Oak Park 19,000 5.6 

Russell 2,000 5.6 

East Chicago 19,000 5.5 

Norfolk 6,000 5.5 

Aurora 30,000 5.4 

Leavenworth 19,000 5.4 

Mishawaka 12,000 5.2 

Noblesville 5,000 4.9 

Rockford 45,000 4.9 

joliet 35,000 4.8 

South Bend 53,000 4.8 

Harvey 7,000 4.7 

SAN ANTONIO 96,000 4.6 

Mt. Carroll 2,000 4.4 

Granite City 10,000 4.3 

Junction City 5,000 4.1 

Mt. Olive 4,000 3.3 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 203 

That the teachers of San Antonio are inferiorly trained is 
not a necessity. A later table shows that the salary standard 
is high enough to attract teachers who have had an average 
length of training. Simply the city has not set up entrance 
standards that are high enough. Graduates of the hig-h school 
of the city are permitted to enter upon teaching practically with- 
out training. 

The amount of training is quite different for the teachers 
of different buildings. In the Collin's Gardens School, the aver- 
age training beyond the elementary school is 6.7 years, which 
is almost as high as that of the highest city in Table X. In the 
Highland Park School the training is 5.2 years beyond the 
elementary, which means an average of a full year and a quarter 
of normal school training. The city might well use the same 
method of getting teachers for all the schools that has been used 
in the case of these. 

The schools where attention to getting better trained teachers 
is shown in Table XL 



204 CHAPTER XL 

Table XI. 
Amount of Training of San Antonio Teachers, 1914-1915. 

School Years of Training! 

Collins Gardens 6.7 

Highland Park .' 5.2 

Houston y -. 5.2 

Harris 5.0 

Ruiz 5.0 

Bonham 5.0 

De Zavala 5 .0 

Briscoe 4.8 * 

Avenue E - 4.7 

Burnet 4.7 

Milam 4.7 

Crockett _ 4.7 

Austin 1 4.7 

Gonzales 4.6 

Travis 4.6 

Eleanor Brackenridge _ 4.4 

Fannin 4.4 

Roberts-Beacon Hill 4.3 

Navarro 4.2 

R i verside Park 4.2 

Brackenridge Memorial 4.1 

Johnson 4.1 

Bowie 4.0 

Smith 4.0 

Margil 4.0 

Lamar 4.0 

Herff 37 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 205 

EXPERIENCE OF TEACHERS. 

The city has "a moderately young body of teachers. They 
average 7.5 years of teaching experience, — total experience was 
counted. Relative standing as compared with these other cities 
js shown in Table XII. 

Table XII. 

Length of Experience of Elementary Teachers in 27 Cities. 



City 


Years of 
Experience. 


City 


Years of 
Experience. 


Chicago 

Morgan Park . 
Winnetka 


13.7 

12.5 

10.8 


Greensburg, Ind. 

Rockford 

Oak Park 


13.0 

10.9 

10.7 




Booneville, Mo. 


10.3 






Junction City . 
Russell, Kan. . 
De Kalb 


10.1 

9.9 

9.5 


Joliet -...., 

Mishawaka 

Aurora ..: 




9.9 

9.7 

9.3 










Leavenworth, Kan 9.2 ' 






Mt. Carroll 8.4 

Harvey 8.0 

SAN ANTONIO 7.5 


Gary, Ind 

Mt. Olive 

Norfolk, Neb 




8.2 

7.6 

7.0 










East Chicago .... 


6.9 






Granite City 

Noblesville, Inc 
Maple Lake, M 


6.9 

1 6.2 

inn 5.2 


South Bend 




... 6.7 


Whiting 

Bonner Springs, 


Kan. ... 


...... 5.8 

... . 3.7 







206 



CHAPTER XL 



TENURE OF TEACHERS. 

While legally teachers are employed for yearly terms, actu- 
ally their tenure is permanent. None are dropped from the rolls 
unless guilty of gross misconduct or inefficiency. In this respect 
the teachers of the city are altogether favorably situated; in 
fact too much so. 

Notwithstanding this permanence of tenure, the teachers 
do not remain long in the service in San Antonio. Table XIII 
shows an average tenure of only 3.5 years. This is very low in- 
deed. I lack the information that will account for it. 



Table XIII. 
Average Tenure of Elementary Teachers. 



Years taught 
City in City. 


Years 
City i 


taught 
n City. 


Chicago 

Rockford ....; 

Leavenworth, Kan. 


...11.1 

.... 9.1 
.... 8.0 


Aurora 

Joliet ......... 

Greensburg, Ind 


9.1 

... 8.7 

7.6 


Morgan Park 


.... 7.0 
.... 6.6 
... 6.4 


Mishawaka 


6.6 


Mt. Olive . 


Russell, Kan 

Mt. Carroll 


.. 6.5 


Winnetka 


6.2 


Junction 


City, Kan 5.S 




Noblesville, Ind 

Oak Park 

Harvey 


.... 5.5 
.... 5.2 
.... 5.8 


Booneville, Mo 

De Kalb 

Granite City 


.. 5.4 

5.2 

4.2 






South Bend . 


4.0 

.... 3.5 
2.0 


East Chicago 

Bonner Springs, Kai 
Maple Lake, Minn. 


4.0 


SAN ANTONIO 


i 2.4 


Norfolk, Neb. . 


1.4 







The brevity of tenure appears not to be due to the salary 
situation. Salaries are about on a level with average practice 
in cities of the country of the same population class as San An- 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 



207 



tonio. Table XIV shows that salaries in San Antonio are sligthly 
in 'advance of those in Dallas, and very much above those of 
Houston. 

Table XIV. 
Salaries of Elementary Teachers. 



Denver $960 

Salt Lake City 830 

Grand Rapids 800 

Des Moines 800 



San Diego ... 
Youngstown 
Lowell 

Nashville 



.$935 
. 800 
. 800 
. 780 



Albany 750 

Duluth 750 

Cambridge 750 

SAN ANTONIO 720 



Covington 
Evansville 
Lawrence 
Dallas 



750 

750 
750 
704 



Dayton 700 

Fall River 700 

Kansas City, Kan 684 

Savannah 675 



Utica 

Canton .. 
Trenton 
Troy 



700 
700 
680 
650 



Houston _ 630 

Saginaw 600 

Charleston 572 

South Bend 540 



Schenectady 
Richmond .... 
Manchester . 
Reading 



600 
595 
550 
510 



THE TRAINING SCHOOL. 

All the discussions of this report indicate the desirability 
oi having teachers who are intimately acquainted with the city. 
Naturally it is those who grow up in San Antonio who ought 
best to know the city. Training and supervision being equally 
efficient, the so-called home-teacher is preferable to the transient 
teacher who comes usually with no intention of making the city 
her home, nor of allying her permanent interests with those of 
the city. Under such circumstances her work tends naturally to 
be abstract and unrelated to the needs of the district of the city 
to which she is employed to minister. With a tenure in the city 



208 CHAPTER XL 

of only three and a half years, it would take a good part of this 
time to get acquainted ; so she neglects to do so usually, satisfied 
with a world of her own apart from the community world in 
which live the children committed to her charge. 

On the other hand, the authorities tend to be far more leni- 
ent in setting up and holding to standards of preparation for 
the "home-teachers" before letting them into the service; and 
also under usual conditions superintendent and principals are 
less free to enforce high standards of work on the part of the 
"home-teachers." Influential members of the community are 
often more interested in the personal wishes — we cannot say wel- 
fare — of their friends than they are in the welfare of the schools. 

San Antonio is clearly suffering from both of these evils. 
The so-called "Training class" which supposedly trains the 
graduates of the local high school for the grade positions is 
scarcely a class in the usual sense of the term. It has no study- 
place, no regular teachers, no textbooks, no assigned library 
reading. It is simply a loose apprenticeship system, in which 
the teachers-in-training pick up what information they can 
through observing and helping in the class-rooms for a half 
year. They come with no previous professional study whatever. 
They cannot observe intelligently since they do not know what 
tv look for nor how to judge what they see. They can learn 
how to do things rule-of-thumb. The plan offers nothing more. 
Such a system of inducting unprofessionally taught high school 
students into the elementary schools accounts for much of the 
mechanization of the work observed. The mechanical aspects 
they can see and imitate. The reasons for it all, the possibilities 
of adjustments to meet the needs of different types of pupils, 
they cannot see. 

The thing needed is clear. As the city develops strong 
vocational courses in the high school for merchants, clerical 
workers, household workers, mechanics, laundresses, manicurists, 
etc., it would be advisable that they also draw up a parallel high 
school course for those who are to be teachers; and to accept 
no graduate from the high school as a teacher who has not taken 
that course. 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 209 

The general high school work for these students could be 
condensed into a three-years' course, and the fourth year given 
wholly to professional studies. When they entered then upon 
their half year of observation they could have something to look 
for, some power of judging what they should see, and some 
power to profit by what they see. This half year of observation 
and class-room assistance should be under the joint direction 
of the teacher of the subject in the high school and the building 
principals of the buildings where they are sent. Though scattered 
among buildings while observing, they should still remain" a 
class for periodic meeting at the high school for discussions and 
conferences. 

The instructor in the high school should be in ability and 
training about the fourth man in the system from the top. He 
ought to be the second assistant-superintendent having special 
supervisory charge of the first-year teachers. With this arrange- 
ment each teacher entering from the San Antonio high school 
would have had two and one-half years of systematic training 
but without taking any more years for it than under present 
plans ; one year in the high school ; one-half year observation 
and practice-teaching, and one year probationary teaching under 
the supervision of the man responsible for her continuing train- 
ing. 

APPOINTMENT OF OUTSIDE TEACHERS. 

It was observed that even in the case of teachers employed 
from outside the system, there is the problem of holding to 
sufficiently high standards. These outside teachers are so often 
induced to come to the city by friends living in the city who 
have influence with the authorities. The remedy is pointed out 
in Chapter IX, of this report. The city should make definite 
decision as to the minimum of normal school training that will 
be accepted ; then place upon the superintendent all responsibility 
for decision as to whether this minimum has been reached in the 
case of any applicant; and all responsibility for judgment as to 
attainments. Since the superintendent is to be held responsible 



210 CHAPTER X L 

for the work of the teachers, responsibility for initiative in ap- 
pointment and for recommendation should be definitely placed 
upon him. 

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS. 

It is much more difficult to go day after day into unfamiliar 
rooms to teach strange classes than it is to teach a regular class, 
it seems strange therefore that this most difficult type of work 
— most difficult of all if it is well done — should be given into 
the hands of those who are confessedly the least trained, the 
least experienced, and the least qualified teachers in the system ; 
namely, the apprentices just entering the service. 

Two things can be said with absolute confidence: 

1. Substitute teachers should be strong experienced teach- 
ers. A certain number of such teachers, based upon the number 
of calls daily received should be assigned to this service. This 
number can be chosen so as to have them employed in substitute 
work most of the days. On the occasional days not called for, 
they can be required to do special individual work with retarded 
children at those buildings that are specially in need of it. It is 
generally possible to have a reserve corps of capable experienced 
substitute teachers made up of former teachers in the service, 
married or unmarried, who yet live in the city but who do not 
wish full time service. 

2. Beginning teachers should be placed so that their first 
teaching should be under the most normal and regular conditions 
possible. In the beginning especially their work should be care- 
fully planned, orderly and sequential. They should, by doing 
superior work from the first day of their service become hab- 
ituated to doing nothing other than superior work. Above all 
things their professional conscience should be fortified against 
doing careless, unplanned, slipshod, purposeless work. They 
need to take a professional pride in the fact that they began 
on a high level and have held consistently to it. 

To take young teachers in professional need of such 
auspicious and favorable beginnings and then to demoralize 
them by substitute work in which they are forced into daily 



ELEMENTARY TEACHERS 2U 

tasks that are of necessity for them unplanned, time-marking, 
and purposeless, is to do just the thing that of all things should 
not be done. To call it professionally criminal against both the 
teachers and the children is to put the thing sufficiently mildly. 

TRAINING TEACHERS DURING SERVICE. 

The chief training during service occurs in connection with 
the monthly Saturday all-day institute. For most of the time 
the teachers are receiving instruction from the supervisors of 
special subjects from the grade-leaders, who are principals 
assigned to special supervision of regular subjects. From in- 
quires it appears that no institute occurred during my visit — 
that the time is largely devoted to detailing the course of study 
topics in each subject that are to be covered during the succeed- 
ing month. The same thing is given to all teachers, experienced 
and inexperienced, those coining from American schools and 
those from immigrant schools. This plan of work takes vital 
responsibility for thinking off individual principals and teachers, 
and tends to uniformatize and mechanize the work. 

It is my opinion that each principal should be pretty fully 
responsible for the training during service of the teachers within 
his building; and that the superintendent should be just as fully 
responsible for training his principals so that they can in turn 
train their teachers efficiently. 

Responsibility for thinking should be taken off neither 
teachers nor principals. The training of teachers in service by 
principals and the training of principals by the superintendent 
should deal chiefly with the principles of educational science 
which are to be used by all concerned in guiding the details of 
their work. The present methods of training produce mechanical 
rule-of-thumb teachers. In an age of science it would appear 
that that profession which is set apart to teach science to the 
world in general should use it themselves as the guide to their 
labors. We cannot here go into details of the plan. A superin- 
tendent and principals who have the ability to do the work will 
have the ability to plan it. 



212 Chapter XII. 

Chapter XII. 

THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The main aspects of work of the high school have been 
pretty fully discussed in the various chapters of this report. We 
wish here to touch only upon a few matters that have not been 
mentioned. 

The city's annual investment in the high schools, including 
interest and depreciation, is well above $80,000. Men in a busi- 
ness community do not usually invest $80,000 a year without 
knowing pretty definitely what they are spending the money 
for. They must know this before they can give their approval. 
Presumably, therefore, the people of San Antonio have formu- 
lated in their own minds the purposes for which they are invest- 
ing so large a sum of money. 

It is always interesting to know what the public values 
most hfghly in the high school work. This can be learned by 
examining into the way they distribute their investment. The 
things in which they invest heavily they value highly ; to the 
things in which they invest but moderately they ascribe but a 
moderate value ; and to the things of little investment they ascribe 
but little value. Now, in what things is San Antonio investing 
her money, and how is the money distributed ? Our interest here 
is not financial ; we wish merely to find relative community 
valuations of the different portions of the high school work. 
Using the most accurate figures available, covering instruction 
only for the past year, it appears that San Antonio is distributing 
each $1000 over the different high school subjects in about the 
proportions shown in Table A. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 213 

Table A. 

The portion of each $1000 expended for instruction in each of 

the high school subjects. 



English Composition and Literature $ 204 

Higher Mathematics 170 

The Sciences 131 

History and Civics 106 

Modern Languages 103 

.Household Occupations _ 97 

Shopwork and Mechanical Drawing , 63 

Commercial Subjects , 53 

Latin 52 

Public Speaking 19 

Music _ 4 

Physical Training : 

Drawing and Design (not mechanical) „ 



Total -. $1000 

This distribution of the community investment over the high 
school subjects raises many questions which a community ought 
to answer for itself. Why should literary analysis and expression 
so greatly outrank everything else in value? Why is it worth 
twice as much as history and civics? Why fifty per cent more 
than science? Why is an understanding and appreciation of 
literary art worth fifty times as much as an understanding and 
appreciation of musical art? This ought to be challenged by 
the musical organizations in San Antonio. Why is abstract 
higher mathematics of a type that is used by very few considered 
of much more, value than anything else, except English? Why 
is it worth twice as much as household training, and three times 
a^. much as shop or commercial training? Why should a city's 
money be invested so heavily in mathematics of little value and 
not at all in physical training, a matter of high value? Is not 
music really worth as much as Latin? Are not drawing and 
design as valuable as Mediaeval history? 



214 CHAPTER XII. 

i 

It is not for an outsider to suggest answers to these ques- 
tions. The community, however, that pays the bills should not 
rest easy until it has carefully considered whether it is distribut- 
ing its money wisely or not. 

Another basis for judging the community valuation of the 
different studies is the distribution of the time of the high school 
students. Presumably these students are distributing their 
time in ways approved by their parents. The total time ex- 
penditure in class during the past semester was 431,956 student- 
hours, a student-hour being the class-time of one student for one 
actual hour of sixty minutes. The distribution of each 1,000 
student-hours over the different subjects was as shown in 
Table B. 

Table B. 

The distribution of each 1,000 student-hours over the 
various subjects. 

English Literature and Composition 243 student-hours 

Algebra and Geometry 200 student-hours 

The Sciences „ 1 54 student-hours 

History and Civics 102 student-hours 

Household Occupations : 92 student-hours 

Modern Languages 73 student-hours 

Shop work and Mechanical Drawing 48 student-hours 

Latin 40 student-hours 

Commercial Subjects 41 student-hours 

Music 7 student-hours 

Drawing and Design (not mechanical) student-hours 

Physical Training student-hours 

Training of Elementary Teachers student-hours 

Total 1,000 student-hours 



There are some reasons for thinking this a better index of 
community valuations than the investment-index. It represents 
what the community actually demands in terms of units of work. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 215 

If not this, it does represent what the community actually chooses 
or at least accepts for its children. It shows that the balance 
of student-time expenditure is about the same as that of the 
financial expenditure. About the same series of questions again 
arise. 

How economical are the expenditures for the various sub- 
jects ? Taking cost of instruction only, the cost per 1000 student- 
hours for teaching the various subjects is shown in Table C. 

Table C. 

Cost per 1000 student-hours of instruction in 
the various high school subjects. 

Modern Languages $114 per 1000 student-hours 

Latin 103 per 1000 student-hours 

Shopwork and Mechanical Drawing 103 per 1000 student-hours 

Commercial Subjects 103 per 1000 student-hours 

Public Speaking 98 per 1000 student-hours 

History and Civics 83 per 1000 student-hours 

Household Occupations 83 per 1000 student-hours 

Mathematics _ 69 per 1000 student-hours 

Sciences 68 per 1000 student-hours 

English Literature and Composition 67 per 1000 student-hours 
Music \ 40 per 1000 student-hours 



The city is paying very different prices for the same amount 
of work in different subjects. The price paid for modern lan- 
guages is 70 percent higher than the price paid for an equal 
amount of English. It is 68 percent higher than an equal 
amount of science ; 65 percent higher than mathematics ; 37 per- 
cent higher than household occupations or history and civics ; 
considerably higher than commercial and shop subjects. Is this 
because modern languages are worth so much more, or because 
of maladjustments in the work of the high schools? It is dif- 
ficult enough in our previous discussions to grant the equality 
of value of foreign languages for most students ; it certainly is 
not possible to grant this superiority of value. 



216 CHAPTER XII. 

Latin also is another drain on the community. Why should 
the city have to pay over 50 percent more for Latin than for 
English, science, or mathematics? Why pay 25 percent more 
than for household occupations or history and civics ? The value 
of the Latin is actually far less than these other subjects. Is 
there mismanagement in the high school, or is somebody "putting 
something over" on the city? 

Is the burden of the work equitably distributed among the 
teachers of the different departments? To answer this question 
•we must note the length of the teachers' working Week, and the 
average size of classes. It is not possible at present to measure 
that portion of the teacher's working week that is spent outside 
of the class-room. We have, however, the number of hours per 
week assigned to regular work in the class-rooms. Table D 
shows the relative burden. 

. Table D. 

Average size of classes and average number of weekly teaching 
hours (full 60 minutes) for each full-time teacher. 

No. Student- Average No. of 

hrs. per week Average hrs. taugbtper 

per full-time Sizeof week per fuJl- 

teacher Class time teacher 

Music (823) 38 (21.5) 

English 629 28 22.4 

Mathematics 622 27 23.4 

Science 543 25 22.0 

History 489 24 20.8 

Public Speaking ; 440 22 20.0 

Latin 402 19 21.5 

Commercial Subjects 386 18 21.8 

Modern Languages 343 17 20.7 

Mechanical Drawing 321 14 23.1 

Household Occupations 316 15 20.8 

Shop-work 266 12 - 22.9 



THE HIGH SCHOOL '_ 217 

The classes in half the subjects average fewer than twenty- 
students per class. With proper accommodations and equipment, 
there can be no justification for this. It is difficult to see any 
reason why the Latin and modern language classes should 
run smaller than science classes. If the language classes were 
so increased, more than two full-time teachers could be dis- 
pensed with, and two class-rooms saved for other uses. This one 
adjustment would save the city $3,000 a year. Not only would 
two rooms be saved, but enough money to build an additional 
room each year. When the high schools are becoming so con- 
gested, the thing is worth considering. With classes a half-year 
apart in progress, and with few sections on each level, teachers 
will generally say that it cannot be done ; or that it is education- 
ally inadvisable to do it. The contention will usually mean that 
it is easier not to make such adjustments than to make them. 
To let things drift mechanically requires neither thought nor 
labor; to adjust the size of classes to the demands of efficiency 
requires both thought and labor. But with both thought and 
labor,desirable adjustments can always be made. In certain 
subjects on certain levels, new sections will begin yearly, not 
semi-yearly. Where small classes are unavoidable, as will oc- 
casionally occur, they can meet fewer times per week for the 
same amount of work ; or they can meet for shorter periods for 
the same amount of work. The unnecessary foreign language 
waste can be saved by such adjustments ; and the community 
should see that it is done. 

The small size of most of the vocational classes has been 
necessitated by the size of the rooms supplied them. With the 
completion of the new practical arts building, the defect can be 
remedied. These classes ought to run on an average as large 
as twenty students per class. If they are compelled to run 
smaller because of a lack of sufficient equipment, it is very 
false economy. The cost of extra teachers is in the end far 
greater than the cost of equipment for an additional five students 
per class. 



218 CH APTER XII. 

TRAINING OF THE TEACHERS— SUPERVISION. 

The average amount of training of high school teachers in 
the Main Avenue high school is six and one-half years beyond 
the elementary schools. This is a year and a half short of a full 
college course, which is coming to be regarded as the minimum 
desirable training of high school teachers. The thing desired 
of course is teaching efficiency ; and the efficient teacher with 
no higher training is to be preferred to an inefficient college 
graduate. But all things else being equal, a teaching corps that 
averages eight years of training beyond the elementary school 
is to be preferred to one that averages six and one-half years. 
How San Antonio stands as compared with certain cities from 
which I happen to have figures is shown in Table E. 

Table E. 
Training of High School Teachers. 



Years beyond 
Elementary School. 



Des Moines 8.9 years 

Peoria 8.3 years 

Gary, Ind 8.1 years 

Aurora, 111 8.1 years 

Indianapolis 8.0 years 

Rockford 8.0 years 



Elgin 7.5 years 

St. Joseph 7.2 years 

Leavenworth ;.. 7.0 years 



Oklahoma City 7.0 years 

SAN ANTONIO 6.5 years 

Kansas Qity, Kan 6.4 years 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 219 

Deficiency in the usually accepted amount of collegiate 
training should be" considered in relation to the effectiveness 
of the work of individual teachers. Where the work of a 
teacher is efficient, the work is not demanding further training. 
Where it is inefficient, then further training of some kind is 
needed. Sometimes they should be encouraged or even required 
to take summer courses, or take a leave of absence for further 
training. More often, however, for experienced teachers long 
in the service, the thing needed is supervisory training. The 
supervision on the part of principal and head of department that 
will strengthen the weak places in a teacher's work is the best 
possible training for that teacher. The best place to train one 
to do efficient work is where that work is being performed. The 
principal has a large opportunity, and bears an equally large 
responsibility. At present there appears to be very little super- 
vision of the work of the high school. The thing most needed 
is not more training of the teachers but a larger quantity and 
a more intelligent quality of supervision by the principal of the 
high school. 

Since the Junior high school constitutes the first semester 
or two of the total four years high school course, the two schools 
should be organic parts of one organization. One principal 
should be responsible for both schools ; though a vice-principal 
would be needed at the Junior school. The head of each depart- 
ment should be responsible for the work of his department in 
both schools ; and should actively supervise. 

THE LIBRARY. 

Attention has been called in other chapters to the library 
needs. At present the Brackenridge high school has no library 
worth mentioning ; and the Main Avenue very little indeed except 
for the fairly generous supply of supplementary literature sets 
for the English classes. The room used is so small as almost to 
render useless the small amount of library actually possessed. 
The room seats only sixteen students. The entire study-room 
should be the library reading room. This could be managed with 



220 CH APTER XII . 

entire ease if the high school authorities made up their minds 
to make the library as serviceable as possible. 

One of the absurdities was to find the library closing at 
two o'clock in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, it is from two 
to four, the two hours just following the close of the daily session, 
that ought to be the busiest hours for the library. With the 
pupils taught how to study, and with the necessary study ma- 
terials supplied by> the library, and the necessary study-room, 
these two hours of use ought greatly to increase the effective- 
ness of the high school work with a very little increase of the 
cost. 

The high school libraries should not be made the deposito- 
ries of old and worthless books given by well-intended but 
mistaken patrons. The choice of all books should grow naturally 
out of the high school work ; and every book should be retired 
from the shelves that is not actively used in furthering the work. 
Benevolence should be encouraged to sell its obsolete books at 
the second-hand store and donate only new and modern books 
demanded by the school work. 

HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING ACCOMMODATIONS. 

The Main Avenue high school is running full capacity, 
it is claimed, and will need a considerable increase in the num- 
ber of rooms for the coming year. The high school principal 
is recommending that a large neighboring dwelling-house be 
rented for the purpose. This is not the entirely inevitable solu- 
tion. The high school buildings are not now running full ca- 
pacity. The daily session closes at 2:05 P. M. Owing to the 
city's being so far west of the meridian of central time, this is 
as early as 1 :30 P. M. in St. Louis, or 1 :00 P. M. in Columbus, 
Ohio. The high school session closes with full four hours of 
daylight ahead on the shortest day of the year. There is no 
reason why the sessions might not continue for an additional 
two periods, or until 3:35. This would permit an additional 
60 classes per day at the present time; and an additional 80 
classes when the new building is completed. This will take care 



THE HIGH SCHOOL • 221 

of an increase of 300 students. Were the session continued until 
4 :20 P. M. — and there is no reason why not, — then the buildings 
might take care of an increase of 400 students. 

In extending this time of use of the building, it is not 
necessary to extend the teachers' work-day. As judged by 
usual practice throughout the country, this is now long enough 
for those whose class-work requires outside labor. Simply, 
certain teachers will report at 8 :30 as at present, and finish 
their periods at 2 :00 or 3 :00 P. M. Others will not report until 
the beginning of the third morning period, their day then con- 
tinuing until the end of the daily session. 

Other teachers whose work is of a type that requires little 
outside preparation of materials and little paper work can be 
given a six or seven hour day without making their labors any 
heavier than those of teachers who must give from two to four 
hours a day to out-of-class labors. There should be some such 
equation in the labors of the different departments. 

With present study-room and library accommodations, the 
plan recommended is more difficult to manage in the matter of 
handling the students in the middle of the day, — if they are 
expected to remain at the building as many hours as at present. 
Ir is possible to permit many students, — those who have learned 
how to study — to return home at the end of five periods. Those 
of this type who come at 8 :30 may well leave at 12 :30. Those 
who first appear at 12:30 can have another five periods before 
4:30. Such a plan would fit in well with the needs of students 
who desire to give a half day regularly, morning or afternoon, 
to remunerative labor. For obvious reasons many students 
would have to be at the school six or seven periods, — appearing 
early and leaving early, or appearing late and leaving late. In 
proportion as this number is large, fairly large study-room ac- 
commodations would be necessary for the middle periods of the 
day. Under present conditions it is this perhaps that will deter- 
mine the maximum number of students that can be handled with 
present buildings if the sessions were extended two or three 
periods. 

If the school, city will add teaching equipment so as to 



222 CHAPTER XII. 

facilitate the work, — books, magazines, maps, charts, apparatus, 
etc., — it will often be possible to increase the size of classes with- 
out detriment to the work or without adding to the burdens of 
the teachers ; and thus gain additional rooms. 

While various adjustments ought to be made in the immedi- 
ate present, yet it remains perfectly obvious that the time has 
come for the city to study the problems of housing the high 
schools with a view to planning the construction of modern 
high school buildings in the near future. The problems are very 
numerous and complicated. They ought therefore to be dis- 
cussed very fully by the city before decision is made. Any sug- 
gestions made here are merely for contributing to the discussion ; 
we have not the facts sufficient for making definite recommenda- 
tions. The problems may be indicated by a series of questions. 

1. Shall there be one very large central high school, or 
shall there be two schools, — one on one side of the city, and the 
other on the other? The size and importance of this problem be- 
comes evident as one looks to the future, — ten and twenty years 
hence. 

2. If two high schools, shall they be of similar type, each 
offering a full round of opportunity to its side of the city? 
Or shall they be somewhat specialized, one being of the so- 
called English-classical type, and the other of the scientific- 
technical type? 

3. How far shall the uses of such biuldings as civic and 
social centers be influential in determining the location of the 
buildings ? 

4. How make sure that the grounds are selected and the 
buildings designed so as to take care of the full round of educa- 
tional needs of the youth of the city, — vocational, physical, civic, 
social, recreational, etc.? This is in fact the central problem. 
If the educational experts in the system will carefully analyze 
out all of the educational factors entering into the problem and 
on the basis of such scientific information will formulate well- 
rounded constructive plans and policy, they can get what the 
city needs. If they have nothing to present but wishes, general 
impressions, and unsystematized personal opinions, they are likely 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 223 

to be in large part over-ridden by those who are seeking personal 
advantage. 

5. How prevent the sacrifice of educational utility in 
the interest of building symmetry and of imposing architectural 
proportions? There is but one way, — general intelligence as to 
educational needs, and an abundance of specific intelligence on the 
part of the school people. Art, simplicity, and utility thrive well 
together where cultivated intelligence can hold sway. 

6. Would it not be advisable to arrange for a half dozen 
intermediate schools scattered judiciously over the city, each 
containing the seventh, eighth, and a portion, at least, of the 
ninth grades ; and then a central specialized high school for the 
final years of training? In very many ways this plan would 
be a distinct improvement over the usual one. Its value is not so 
evident on the surface at the present moment ; this will appear 
ten and twenty years hence as the high school develops, differ- 
entiates, and becomes a people's college. 



224 CHAPTER XIII. 

Chapter XIII. 

BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT. 

The city has a considerable building program immediately 
ahead of it. The rapid growth of the city is necessitating quite 
a number of additional rooms each year. The passage of the 
recent compulsory enducation law also will bring into the schools 
a considerably increased number of children. 

The present high school plants are altogether outgrown. 
In a short time one or two new high school buildings will be 
required. 

Building Plans. 

One of the most serious building problems confronting the 
board at present relates to the general type of plan of building 
best adapted to San Antonio conditions. After looking over the 
buildings of the city, it appears that the experience of the past 
forty years of school house construction, has gradually evolved 
a type of building in the Crockett School which points clearly 
to the next step in the evolution of building types. 

Buildings must be adapted to climatic conditions. They 
should look primarily to those climatic conditions that are the 
most trying ; and only secondarily to those less so. In a cold cli- 
mate the most trying conditions are the rigors of the winter. 
Buildings must therefore be adapted primarily to the demands of 
winter conditions. They can then be made to serve sufficiently 
well for the relatively few weeks of hot summer weather. 

Since they are built for winter conditions, it is desirable to 
have as little outside exposed surface as possible. Especially is it 
desirable that there be only enough window space for light. 
Since windows are not to be much used for air, they may best 
be all on one side of the room. The familiar square type of 
building will serve, since it is compact. Rooms are expected to 
be kept closed nearly all of the time, both those that open out 
of doors as well as those that open into the corridors. Ventila- 
tion is to be by forced draught, and the lighting is to be unilateral. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 225 

Most of the books on school buildings treat only the requirements 
of buildings in a cold climate. 

In a Southern climate like that of San Antonio, the most 
trying conditions are not those of the short, mild, winter but 
those of the long sultry summer. Buildings must therefore be 
primarily adapted to the demands of the trying summer condi- 
tions. They can then be made to serve sufficiently well for the 
relatively few weeks of cool weather and the relatively few days 
of actually cold weather. For most of the year rooms are to be 
kept well opened. Ventilation is not mainly a question of the me- 
chanical delivery of thirty cubic feet of air per pupil per minute 
for the sake of atmospheric purity. It is mainly a question of get- 
ting all the air that is moving for the sake of coolness and physi- 
cal invigoration. Rooms cannot well be placed in double series 
along a central corridor, since each series shuts off the air of 
the other. If both open full into the corridor and also outside, 
so that air currents can sweep freely through the building, air 
conditions can be made entirely satisfactory ; but the problem 
of noises and visual interferences then enters in. The Southern 
climate does not. demand the compact, small surface building; 
quite the contrary, it demands a building in which the rooms 
open out upon the free air on as many sides and as fully as 
possible, consistent with other necessary conditions. School 
building theory relating to general plans, as written in our 
books on the subject, do not generally relate to climatic condi- 
tions like those of San Antonio. 

San Antonio must be studied in and for itself in determin- 
ing a general type of building that is satisfactory for its own 
peculiar conditions. In considering these conditions, there are 
certain climatic factors that must especially be kept in mind. 
These are : (1) Climatic temperature; (2) direction of the 
wind; (3) velocity of the wind; (4) the relative percentage of 
days of sunshine; (5) the direction of the sunlight through the 
school hours. We. must examine each of these as they apply to 
the building situation in order to find out what appears to be a 
building suited to the climatic conditions of San Antonio. 



226 CHAPTER XTTI. 

Table XV shows the mean hourly temperature for each 
of the months of the year as furnished through the kindness of 
the San Antonio Weather Bureau: 

Table XV. 
Mean Hourly Temperature in San Antonio. 

A.M. P.M. 

9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 

January 48 51 54 56 58 61 62 65 

February 49 51 54 57 58 60 63 64 

March 57 62 65 68 70 72 74 75 

April 64 67 70 72 74 75 77 77 

May 71 74 76 78 80 82 83 83 

June 78 81 84 86 89 91 92 92 

July 79 81 84 87 89 90 91 91 

August 80 83 86 88 89 92 93 93 

September 76 79 82 85 87 88 89 89 

October 66 69 72 74 76 78 79 79 

November 56 60 63 65 67 70 70 70 

December 49 51 54 56 58 60 61 62 



Temperatures for the entire year are shown because of the 
fact that with the introduction of summer schools, the school 
is becoming a twelve months affair. This is a condition that is 
sure to increase rather than diminish, since as school work is 
made active, normalizing, and healthful, the school is as good a 
place for city children in the summer as anywhere else ; it should 
be better. The table shows that the school should be as open 
as possible for at least eight months of the year. It shows that 
the weather in January, the coldest month, is really on the whole 
very mild. Evidently biuldings that are constructed to take care 
of the trying summer conditions, can rather easily be adapted 
to the conditions of so mild a winter. 

The temperature of winter occasionally goes considerably 
below the mean shown in the table ; but it is rare that it goes 
below freezing, and then the cold is of short duration. This is 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 227 

shown by the figures of the weather bureau covering the ten 
year period from 1900 to 1910. During the ten years there were 
of the months of January 310 days. On one day out of the 310 
the mean daily temperature was 23 degrees. On one other day 
it was 31 degrees. These are the only two days in the ten years 
when the mean daily January temperature of San Antonio was 
below freezing. The number of days having each level of tem- 
perature is shown by Table XVI. 

Table XVI. 

Number of January days, 1900-1910, at each 
level of Mean Daily Temperature. 

Temperature Number of Days. 

75 to 79 degrees 

70 to 74 degrees 22 

65 to 69 degrees 25 

60 to 64 degrees 47 

55 to 59 degrees 54 

50 to 54 degrees 70 

45 to 49 degrees _ 38 

40 to 44 degrees 26 

35 to 39 degrees ..._ 16 

34 degrees - 3 

33 degrees ., 4 

32 degrees 3 

3 1 degrees 1 

23 degrees 1 

The table shows that the temperature for most of the days 
was between forty degrees and seventy-five degrees ; that in only 
a relatively small percent of the cases did the temperature drop 
down below forty degrees. While the colder months are on the 
whole very mild, it must be noted on the other hand, that the 
warm months of the long summer are sufficiently sultry during 
the mid-day and afternoon. If we take seventy-five degrees as 



228 CHAPTER XIII . 

the point at which the heat begins to become oppressive and 
physically undesirable unless the rooms are well opened and the 
air in motion, then Table XV shows that for 45 percent of the 
school hours of the entire year the heat is such as to demand- the 
greatest fulness possible of open air conditions. 

The figures of the Weather Bureau show clearly that build- 
ings in San Antonio must look primarily to provision against 
sultriness, and only secondarily to provision against cold. The 
almost universal remedy for sultriness is keeping the body bathed 
in moving currents of air. It is by so controlling conditions as 
to keep the air in motion. An electric fan does not cool the air ; 
it simply sets it in motion. Electric fans for the purpose at the 
present time are scarcely practicable for schools. Even if they 
were, San Antonio does not need them, where buildings are con- 
structed so as to permit the free passage of the invigorating 
south-east Gulf breeze. During the warm months of summer 
this breeze is very constant. The records of the Weather Bureau 
show that from April to October the prevailing wind is from the 
south-east every hour in the day. Only at rare intervals and for 
very short periods is this almost absolute uniformity disturbed 
during these summer months. The mean velocity of the wind is 
shown in Table XVII, for each of the hours of the school day. 

Table XVII. 
Mean Hourly Wind Velocity. 



Mar. Apr. May Jun. July Aug. Sept. Oct. 



8 :00 A. M. 7 7 7 6 6 5 5 6 

9 :00 A. M 99987666 

10:00 A. M 10 10 9 8 8 7 7 8 

11:00 A. M 11 11 10 8 8 7 8 8 

12:00 Noon 11 11 10 9 8 8 8 9 

1:00 P. M 11 11 10 9 9 8 8 8 

2:00 P. M 11 11 10 9 9 8 9 8 

3:00 P. M 11 11 10 9 9 9 9 8 

4:00 P. M 11 11 10 9 9 9 9 8 

5:00 P. M 11 11 10 10 9 9 9 8 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 229 

This table shows that for every hour of every sultry day, 
it is possible to have "an invigorating breeze through the school 
rooms if only they are constructed so as to permit the free pas- 
sage of the air ; and if the arrangements of trees, shrubbery, and 
neighboring buildings are such as not to obstruct the free pas- 
sage of the air. 

Returning now to the topic of building plans it is felt that 
the recently introduced "square" plan of building does not suf- 
ficiently take into consideration these climatic factors. It is 
an imported northern building, good for a cold climate only. 
Not enough of the rooms are open toward the south-east, east, 
and south. But even when open toward the south-east, this 
alone is not sufficient. Rooms must also be equally open on the 
opposite side. Air can enter only in so far as there is provision 
for its exit on the opposite side. The partial provision of a sin- 
gle transom on the opposite side of the room is insufficient for 
two reasons. It is not large enough. It is placed so high above 
the pupils' heads that they must sit in still air while the currents 
pass over their heads from window to transom, or from transom 
to window, according to the location of the rooms. To sit near 
an electric fan, but outside of the current will not cool one in 
the slightest degree. One must sit within the air-current. It is 
not different in the case of the south-east air current from the 
Gulf. The pupils during the hot months must sit in the currents 
in order to secure any of the physically beneficent cooling effects. 
The air should pass level across the room where the pupil sits. 
However sufficient unilateral windows may be in a cold climate 
where lighting is the only window problem, it cannot possibly 
be sufficient in a city located like San Antonio. Here rooms 
must be open on two sides at least, on the level of the pupils. 
This does not necessarily mean bilateral lighting. It is possible 
to construct rooms so that they can be open on both sides but 
shaded on one side, thus adapting them for both light and air. 

If in a building of the recent type the corridor walls were 
open on the levels of the pupils' desks so that the breezes from the 
south-east could sweep through and bathe the pupils continuously 
where they sit, both the lighting and air problems would be 



230 CHAPTER XIII. 

taken care of in the case of those biuldings where the windows 
face east and west. Although the rooms would be open on both 
sides, they would be lighted on but one. A little observation 
of such a building as now constructed, will show that such a plan 
would not be practicable. With class-room doors open into the 
corridors and the work of the various rooms in full blast it can 
be noted at present that the corridors are resonators and that 
the sounds from any part of the building penetrate to every class- 
room. Were corridor walls further opened, the interferences 
of sounds would be aggravated and the work of the class-rooms 
too much disturbed. Classes moreover, in opposite rooms would 
be visible to each other. Such auditory and visual distractions 
tc attention are highly undesirable. As school rooms are made 
to open on both sides they must not be made to open into each 
other. It certainly appears that the square type of building 
recently introduced into San Antonio cannot be made to take 
care of the air needs without introducing other very undesirable 
features. 

Another of these indesirable features inherent in the present 
type of building is the direction of the lighting. South lighting 
as in the New Beacon Hill School or the Douglass School is 
scarcely permissible. If during the hot months one shuts off 
the glare by means of translucent blinds, one gets the light but 
the air is shut off. If awnings or Venetian blinds are used so 
as to permit the entrance of air, then the light is shut off. It 
is scracely possible to manage the windows facing the south 
so as to make them fully available for both light and air. 

Because of the great amount of sunshine in San Antonio 
and the general clearness of the skies, windows receiving north 
light can always be full open without ever permitting the glare 
of direct sunshine. Such windows can be used equally for light 
and air. Owing to the outer brilliance of Texas light most of 
the year, the objections to north lighting mentioned in the books 
that are reasonably valid for northern cities do not hold for 
San Antonio. By employing a large window surface as is now 
used in the new type of building, the north light will be suffi- 
cient even for the relatively short periods of cloudy weather. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 231 

East lighting is no.t good for this city. San Antonio lies so 
far west of the meridian that the sun finds itself about forty 
minutes behind the clock. Since the schools open at the usual 
hour, this means that they open very early as judged by the 
sun's position — the equivalent of opening at 8 :20 in St. Louis, 
or 7:40 in Columbus, Ohio. In other words, San Antonio 
schools have a very great amount of morning sunlight. In the 
warmer months, the rooms should be well open. If they face the 
east, the difficulty is like that of facing the south. It is practi- 
cally impossible to provide equally well for both light and air. 

West lighting is good just because of the fact that the sun 
runs so far behind the clock. This means that on the basis of 
the sun's position the schools close very early. Windows open 
to the west can be open full almost all of the school day for 
both light and air. If in the middle of the afternoon the sun 
sometimes troubles, it is more easily managed than in the case 
of the east windows because of the schools closing while the sun 
is yet high. 

Just as it is evident from wind conditions that the rooms 
should be opened toward the east, the south-east and the south, 
so looking at the matter from lighting conditions it is equally 
clear that rooms should be open toward the north-west, the 
west, and the north. The side best for light entrance is worth- 
less for air entrance ; and on the other hand, the side best for 
the inlet of air is poorest for the entrance of the light. Since 
air conditions, however, make it imperative that rooms shall be 
opened upon two sides these double demands for the light and 
the air create no difficulty. The solution is to have the rooms 
open on the north-west for the light, and upon the south-east for 
the air, but shaded upon the south-e'ast side. 

If climatic conditions must be taken into consideration in 
the ways here mentioned in the construction of school buildings, 
then it is possible to point out two types of buildings that will 
apparently satisfy the demand. In a type that most perfectly 
meets climatic demands, each story of the building consists of 
a single series of rooms. These rooms open full toward the 
north-west for light. They open full toward the south-east into 



232 CHAPTER XIII. 

a corridor which runs along the entire south-east side of the 
building so as to shade the south-east opening of all of the class- 
rooms without interfering with the currents of air. The 
windows of the outer walls of the corridor are as large as the 
windows for lighting purposes to the north or west. Since these 
corridor windows are chiefly for air and not light, they may 
be partially closed during the colder months of winter, with solid 
panels which can really have all the solidity and offer all the 
protection of permanent structures, but which are removable 
for summer conditions. If such large openings from class-rooms 
into the corridors tend to produce noise-interference, this must 
be looked after in the mode of designing the corridors ; but hav- 
ing the outer corridor walls open during the summer months, 
creates corridor conditions that are not greatly different from 
the outside gallery conditions of many of the present schools. 

A building constructed on the plan described, would be 
long, narrow, and straight. Owing to the way that San Antonio 
is laid out, it would be difficult to place upon most of the blocks 
such a long building facing the south-east. A more practical 
type of building plan would be the L-shaped building with the 
opening of the angle toward the south-east, and with the corri- 
dors within this angle, on the south and east sides, lighting 
being from the north and west. By placing the angle of the 
building at the north-west corner of the school block one wing 
will lie east and the other south. It may not be possible to give 
this type of building the structural proportions of the superb 
Crockett Building. Still almost any type of building can with 
care be made architecturally pleasing. But whether this be so 
or not, the physical welfare of the children demands that utility 
shall come before beauty, but in case either must be sacrificed, 
it is architectural beauty rather than the welfare of the children 
that should suffer. 

As one examines the buildings at the Milam, the Burnet, or 
the Crockett schools, it is quite clear that the building evolution 
of the city has recently reached this L type of building. These 
buildings show that the city in carrying out the building evolu- 
tion begun forty years ago, needs to take just one further step 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 233 

in the way of the general plan to be used ; this is to place the re- 
shaped type of building upon a block so that the full air open- 
ings to all the rooms shall be toward the south and east, and 
so that all of the light openings of the same rooms shall be to- 
ward the north and west. The city has actually evolved out of 
its experience the type of building here described. 

Perhaps we should call attention to the fact that in buildings 
so constructed the second-story rooms are better than those 
of the first-story; and that, leaving aside the climb,after they 
are reached, the third-story rooms are better than those of the 
second-story. We are not here advocating a third-story. We 
would only call attention to the fact that where perfection of 
conditions is not attainable, we are sometimes confronted with 
the problem of choosing the lesser of two evils. San Antonio will 
sometime probably have the problem of choosing between an un- 
desirable, enervating sultriness, and a somewhat undesirable 
amount of stair-climbing. While neither is desirable, it must be 
kept in mind that the sultriness continues through the entire 
long school day ; while if toilet and rest rooms are properly 
placed, the day's amount of stair-climbing to one extra story 
may be accomplished in an extra minute or two. Naturally 
where possible, both evils will be avoided ; but when confronted 
with a choice, it should be made upon a basis of San Antonio 
climatic conditions. 

The type of building described provides in the simplest way 
for additions to the building. It is simply extended at either 
end with a minimum of expenditure and including only a mini- 
mum of extra ground space. The method of the past, of scat- 
tering buildings rather generously over the school grounds has 
resulted in a diminution of play space at a time when the in- 
crease in the number of pupils was increasing the need of such 
play spaces. Building plans should provide for additions with- 
out unnecessarily disturbing the play spaces. 

As the school comes to be more and more used for com- 
munity gatherings, community music, evening entertainments, 
etc., the advisability of providing a gathering place like that 
upon the roof of the Travis Club building will become in- 



234 ■ C HAPTER XIII. 

creasingly evident. During the day, such roof spaces can be 
used for folk-games, for gymnastic exercises, for both directed 
and free play of certain types, for the lunch room period, etc. 
While cities of colder climates are developing the indoor school 
auditorium and general meeting place, it would appear that San 
Antonio, taking into consideration climatic differences, will pro- 
vide more of the open-air spaces. 

Heating and Ventilating. 

In all buildings at the present time, except the Crockett and 
those finished within the past year, heating is by means of stoves, 
and the ventilation by means of the windows. Visits to more than 
two hundred class-rooms while classes were in session showed 
no noticeably bad ventilation. The stove heat was sufficient to 
break the chill of the air. The windows without difficulty pro- 
vided for sufficient change of air. The air generally felt like 
"live air" rather than the dry, parched, "dead air" so common 
in school rooms where windows are kept tightly closed and the 
air supplied by a mechanical ventilating system. The rooms 
seemed to be suffering neither from dryness of the air, lack of 
movement of the air, nor undesirably high or low temperatures. 
. Since many of the buildings of San Antonio must continue 
to use this mode of heating and ventilation, it is perhaps well 
to state here that for a city so located it will be very difficult 
greatly to improve upon the method. As a matter of fact, no 
method of mechanical ventilation has yet been invented that is 
so good as window ventilation when outside temperatures are so 
mild as forty degrees or above. It means moving air; it means 
desirable variation in the room temperature; it permits "live 
air"; it permits sufficient exit of foul air; and in an atmosphere 
like that of Texas it sufficiently provides for the humidity most 
of the time. No mechanical system can do more. Where a me- 
chanical system is employed in San Antonio, it can safely be 
asserted that there ought to be window ventilation also for almost 
every day in the year. This is stated in spite of the general re- 
quirement that windows be kept strictly closed in order not to 
derange the mechanical ventilating system. This is in fact de- 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 235 

sirable in a cold climate where ventilation must depend upon 
such a system. Such a requirement cannot be imposed upon the 
buildings in San Antonio, however, except for a relatively few 
days in the year. The nearest approach to really bad ventila- 
tion observed, was in a recently-built addition in which had been 
installed a stove and an automatic ventilating system with the 
requirement that the windows be kept closed in order not to 
derange the ventilation. Such automatic modes of ventilation 
which must depend upon gravity for the circulation are satis- 
factory only where the difference in temperature between out- 
side and inside is very great. They are satisfactory for very 
cold weather in the north. They cannot provide satisfactory 
ventilation for a mild climate. 

The chief objections to heating the rooms with stoves is 
the interruption caused by the entrance of the janitor for re- 
plenishing the fire occasionally ; the space taken up by the stove, 
together with its jacket; the disfigurement of the room produced 
by this extra piece of furniture with its appurtenances; and the 
uncleanliness. There are also certain other remediable objec- 
tions. At the present time the opening into the stoves very 
often faces the seats of the children, so that either the jacket 
has to be removed every time the fuel is replenished and then 
replaced, or the open side of the jacket is left facing the children 
at their seats. This condition can be remedied merely by revers- 
ing the direction in which the stove faces. When this is done, 
the open side of the jacket can always be turned away from the 
seats of the children and the jacket need not be moved in order 
to replenish the fire. At the present time, also, the jackets in 
general are unlined so that the children who sit nearest the 
stoves are often unduly warm. The jackets should by all means 
be lined with asbestos. If then they were fastened to the floor 
during that part of the year when the stoves must be left stand- 
ing in the room, there is no reason why the asbestos might not 
last indefinitely. All stoves should be removed from class- 
rooms during those portions of a year when stoves are no longer 
required. This removes most of the other objections to the 
stoves for the major portion of the year. 



236 CHAPTER XIII. 

Each room should be supplied with a reliable thermometer. 
The ones now found are generally too cheap to be reliable. One's 
feelings constitute a better guide than a thermometer that reg- 
isters several degrees above or below actual temperature. Care" 
should also be taken' in the placing of the thermometer in the 
rcom, so that it will provide a fair indication of actual room 
temperature. In one case a thermometer was observed fastened 
within the window frame with cold air blowing in on it through 
the chinks. The instrument registered a temperature fairly low, 
when as a matter of fact, the room was too warm. 

Lighting. 

With the introduction of the newer type of building rep- 
resented by the Crockett or the Highland Park building certain 
aspects of the lighting problem have been completely solved. 
Lighting is now unilateral, the light entering from the left. 
The lighting surface is large, being entirely sufficient in every 
one of the newer rooms examined. The tops of the windows 
are straight and extend to within six inches of the ceiling, thus 
permitting the light to carry easily to the farthest row of desks 
in the room. The walls are tinted to harmonize with lighting 
needs. In these mattters the most modern experience has been 
followed. 

The orientation of the buildings seems not to have been 
so carefully studied. In the Highland Park, the Douglass, and 
the Beacon Hill schools, for example, the same general plans 
have been followed. In the Highland Park school, however, 
the windows face .east and west ; while in the case of the other 
two, the windows face north and south. The buildings named, 
are placed as though it were a matter of indifference which 
way they face; yet, as a matter of fact, the light coming from 
certain directions is much more easily controlled so as to pre- 
vent the glare than that coming from other directions. It is 
felt, however, that for San Antonio conditions, the lighting prob- 
lem cannot possibly be solved satisfactorily in the case of a build- 
ing of the square type, such as these. Rooms must of necessity 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 237 

face either the east or the south, both directions being undesirable 
for San Antonio Conditions. 

Recommendations as to lighting- have already been made 
with reference to future buildings. Certain recommendations are 
needed in the case of the buildings now in use, which must con- 
tinue to be used for many years to come. In most rooms, the 
lighting is, or by means of certain minor adjustments, can be 
made quite satisfactory. Here and there, however, certain ad- 
justments by way of improving the light are very desirable. 
Iii a certain very few cases attention is more than merely de- 
sirable. The welfare of the children makes attention imperative. 

At the Bonham School for example, the two primary rooms 
to the west on the first floor of the main building are examples 
of highly defective lighting. There are 125 square feet of window 
space for the 1,000 square feet of floor space. This ratio is 
much too small under the best conditions ; but in each of these 
rooms, the windows to the side have two-thirds of the light cut 
off by the recently erected additions to the building. At the 
back of the room, fully half of the light is shut off by the wide 
second floor gallery, by the trellis and vines, and by the foliage 
of the trees in the back yard. The intensity of the light in these 
two primary rooms is certainly less than a quarter of what it 
ought to be, and is highly prejudicial to the eyes of all the 
children except those seated near certain of the windows. In 
time these rooms may probably have to be condemned and used 
as store rooms. In the immediate present, however, certain 
adjustments should be made by way of doubling or trebling the 
quantity of light in the rooms. This can be done by painting 
the walls and ceiling pure white ; by cutting down the quantity 
of black-board space in the rooms so as to have less black wall ; 
by clearing away all vines and trellis from the veranda, and paint- 
ing the ceiling and posts of the veranda pure white ; by raising 
the tops of the three side windows to the ceiling with as large 
transoms as possible, and by trimming some of the trees immedi- 
ately west of the rooms. Merely to have open windows is not 
enough for light. There must be freedom from obstruction for 
both direct and diffused light ; and where difficulties are ex- 



258 CHAPTER XIII . 

perienced, the walls and furniture of the rooms should be so 
cared for as to absorb as little light as possible. 

The Navarro School presents still worse examples of the 
harmful effect upon the lighting of constructing additions with- 
out a due consideration of the effect of these additions upon 
rooms already built. Certain rooms in the Navarro where the 
window area is already too small relative to the floor area, the 
windows have been rendered largely or wholly ineffective by the 
1 uilding of wings which cut off large portions of direct and 
diffused light from the outside, and by the planting or the contin- 
uance of foliage trees where they shade such windows. I visited 
these rooms on a fairly bright afternoon, and found certain of 
them so dark that it was impossible to read my notes in certain 
portions of the rooms without holding them up so as to get a 
specially favorable light from the windows. In certain of the 
rooms, the ratio of effective window space to floor space was less 
tl an 1 to 10. Since many of these rooms must be used for many 
years to come, the school city should take advantage of as many 
ways as possible of relieving the situation as already specified in 
case of the Bonham. By properlv controlling the various factors 
that enter into the lighting situation, practically every room in all 
the schools can be lighted sufficiently for immediate purposes. 
Ir practically every case of insufficient lighting as in the primary 
rooms at No. 4 and No. 5, in the sewing room at the Brackenridge 
High School, in the study room at the Main Avenue High School, 
in the central second- story room at school No. 21, etc., etc., by 
taking the matter in hand in ways already suggested, a suffi- 
cient amount of light can in most cases be provided at compara- 
tively little expense. It appears evident that the lighting factors 
have never been properly studied. In the case of the relatively 
few rooms where the lighting is questionable, it would appear 
that the Board ought to send its medical examiner and an ex- 
pert optician to make careful examination in the light of well- 
accepted standards of lighting, and to report conditions to the 
board. Were this done, inexcusable conditions now existing 
could not well continue. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 239 

In considering increasing the intensity of the light in any 
room the board and "the superintendent of buildings and grounds 
should keep in mind such factors as the following : 

(1) The possiblity of whitening ceilings, walls, doors, 
door and window trim, space covered by a portion of the black- 
board ; and of using lighter colors of wood in desks, furniture 
and floors. 

(2) The possibility of raising the tops of the windows, 
or of introducing transoms above windows. In the poorly 
lighted rooms often there is abundant space above the windows. 
For room lighting, the top part of the window is worth two or 
three times as much as the lower half of the window. 

(3) The possibility of opening double windows in place 
of the single ones. A slender steel mullion can easily be placed 
in the middle of the present window and windows opened on 
either side of it, thus doubling, at very small expense, the light- 
ing surface of the window. 

(4) The whitening of surfaces of wings of buildings, of 
verandas, etc., so that they may aid in the transmission of dif- 
fused light from the outside. 

(5) The cutting away of all vines and shade trees or por- 
tions of such trees as unduly interfere with the lighting of the 
windows. It is possible to plant trees, shrubbery, vines in such 
portions of the school yard that the lighting of the rooms will 
not be unduly interfered with. 

(6) The use of translucent curtains for breaking the glare 
from transoms and high small windows, the glass of which is 
now often painted to prevent the glare. The use of translucent 
curtains would permit a clear light on cloudy days and would 
shut out the glare without shutting out the light on bright days. 

(7) The occasional use of artificial lighting of a type 
that is steady and which does not consume the oxygen of the 
rooms. 

We have thus far discussed the control of light where there 
was a deficiency. Another large problem discovered everywhere 
in the schools of San Antnio was how to control the light when 
there was an excess of direct sunlight. Most rooms secured some 



240 C HAPTER XII I. 

of their light at least from the east, south, or west windows 
through which at some portion of the day the direct sunlight 
enters. The city appears to be trying out quite a variety of 
blinds, no one of which is altogether satisfactory for this par- 
ticular problem. When the dark cloth curtains or the Venetian 
blinds are used to shut out the direct sunlight, they usually shut 
out the diffused light as well, and the rooms are made unduly 
dark. The rooms are then compelled to secure too much of the 
light from the back or the wrong side of the room. The ques- 
tion is how to have the light without the glare. The best solution 
thus far found is the use of a white translucent shade, which 
gives a soft, ground-glass effect when lighted by the direct 
sunshine and thus affords an abundance of good diffused light 
without permitting the glare. When the direct sunshine does not 
enter or upon cloudy days, these translucent shades can be thrown 
up and the full clear diffused light from ouside permitted to 
enter. Such translucent shades should be used in certain rooms 
m practically all buildings. In the warmer months when the 
windows to the south and east must be open for the sake of the 
air and yet protected from the direct sunlight, it is possible to 
use the translucent shades at the top of the windows and the 
open Venetian blinds for the bottom half of the windows ; or to 
use awnings protecting only the lower half. 

In very many of the rooms visited improper lighting condi- 
tions were found because of a lack of attention to the blinds 
on the part of the teacher and pupils. In one room visited where 
they were having trouble with the morning sunlight through 
the east windows, a student was sent to lower the east blinds 
so as to shut out the glare. He also lowered the blinds from the 
north and west from which there was no direct sunlight. These 
latter blinds should have been opened full instead of being 
drawn down. The result was that the room was unnecessarily 
darkened ; and the teacher seemed not to notice. If a teacher 
knows what ought to be done in the regulation of the blinds, 
it requires very little thought or care to keep them properly regu- 
lated through the day. It is a task that should be given over, 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 241 

however, to individual pupils, each serving- a limited time, as a 
portion of their training. 

Cloak Rooms and Wardrobes. 

An examination of the book, "Grade School Buildings", 
by Wm. C. Bruce, of the American School Board Journal, shows 
that the so-called sanitary wardrobe, such as employed in the 
newer buildings in San Antonio, is not much used. The cloak- 
room is almost everywhere considered the better arrangement. 
It is a little more expensive, since it takes up a little more space. 
It is generally considered enough better to warrant the cost. 

When the sanitary ward-robes are used they ^certainly 
should not be placed at the teacher's end of the room, as in 
some of the rooms in the Highland Park Building and the others 
of the same type. One of the obstacles to rational building plans 
so often cropping up in the system is an inordinate love of 
symmetry. Symmetry is not always necessary to good appear- 
ance; and in any case, the welfare of the work of the school is 
a thing of greater need than mere building symmetry. 

Furniture and Equipment. 

The new buildings and the additions are being equipped in 
the most modern way. Only the most improved and adjustable 
desks are being purchased. Black-boards are of slate and pro- 
vided with sanitary mesh-protected ledges. The manual training 
rooms are being equipped with the very best quality of work 
benches, and with a full assortment of tools and appliances. The 
domestic science rooms are being equally well equipped with 
both furnishings and utensils. Every school, whether domestic 
science center or not, is amply supplied with sewing machines. 
The toilet fixtures that are recently being installed are thoroughly 
modern and sanitary. 

Furniture and equipment for the schools have already been 
pretty thoroughly studied by those in charge. There are a few 
things, however, that ought to be mentioned. 



242 C HAPTER XIII. 

Buildings should be supplied with telephones. The schools 
need daily communication with the school board office, with the 
school physician, with officers of parents' or other associa- 
tions co-operating with the work of the schools, etc. The fact 
that principals, teachers, and janitors, are all putting in tele- 
phones and paying for them at their own expense is clear proof 
that the need exists. Such telephones need not be listed in the 
city directory. 

The recently-constructed schools are well supplied with 
superior types of automatic drinking fountains, both within 
the buildings and in the school yards ; and they are also supplied 
with a fairly generous number of standing wash basins. Many 
of the schools, however, are in need of the lavatory facilities and 
improvements of the improved drinking fountain so as to make 
them sanitary. These are matters in which the school physician 
should have a voice. 

At a number of the buildings in primary rooms permanent 
lines have been drawn upon the black-board with either white 
or green paint. This is an excellent device which ought to be 
extended to all buildings. Lines should not be so far apart as 
in certain buildings observed, nor so near together as in one 
of the buildings observed. The green line is much better 
for the purpose than the white line, since the white lines do not 
clearly distinguish themselves from the white lines of the chalk. 
The lines are only to be seen during the writing. They are not 
to be easily visible to the class reading the work. The green 
lines will be found to be unobtrusive. In the high school, in 
rooms where mathematics is taught or where graphical work of 
any sort is done, as for example, in classes of physics or civics, 
cross section lines, preferably in green, should be permanently 
placed upon the black-board. They will be found useful in 
a variety of ways, and are great time savers for certain types 
of work. 

Reference needs to be made to the placing of black-boards. 
Cases were found where the boards in the primary rooms were 
too high for the pupils' convenient use, and in upper grade rooms, 
where the boards were placed too low for proper use. Judging 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 243 

from current practice, it would appear that black-boards in the 
first two primary rooms should be placed about twenty-six inches 
from the floor ; in the third and fourth grade rooms, about 
twenty-eight inches from the floor ; in the fifth and sixth grade 
rooms, thirty inches from the floor ; in the seventh and eighth 
grade rooms, thirty-two inches from the floor ; and in the high 
school grades, about thirty-six inches from the floor. The width 
of the board should be adapted to the uses to which it is to be put. 
The front board that must be used by both pupils and teacher 
should be fairly wide, extending upward as high as it is con- 
venient to use a board. Other black-boards in the room, how- 
ever, should not be wider than the pupils' use demands. For 
the lower grades they need not be more than thirty inches wide, 
for the grammar grades thirty-six, and for the high school, 
forty-two. There should not be more black-board space than is 
actually needed for the work because of its absorption of light. 
Many San Antonio rooms appear to be over-supplied with black- 
board space. 

The Buildings as an Educational Influence and Opportunity. 

Where children spend their days, month after month and 
year after year, in a building such as the Crockett with its im- 
posing lines within and without, its spacious and tastefully ap- 
pointed rooms and corridors, its sanitary accommodations, etc., 
a higher appreciation of housing conditions unconsciously and 
without effort grows up in the pupils. Without knowing why 
they tend to become more impatient than they would otherwise 
be of disorder in housing arrangements, of cluttered-up rooms 
and corridors, of uncleanliness, of unsightly color schemes, of 
darkened rooms, of insanitariness, etc. No part of their educa- 
tion that they get from books is any more important or more 
far-reaching than this. From the first grade to the end of the 
high school, they are being taught literature, and music, and 
drawing, the purpose in large degree being the development of 
aesthetic appreciation. These studies can be no more influential 
probably than attractive and pleasing buildings and grounds, 



244 CHAPTER XIII. 

in the actual midst of which they must spend their formative 
years. 

If on the other hand, the pupils must spend their days/month 
after month, and year after year, in class-rooms in which every 
aesthetic line is broken by the arrangements ; the furniture, the 
so-called sanitary ward-robes, undesirable color schemes, 
mouldings of black-boards and window panes dashed with the 
wall tint, broken plaster, new black-boards superposed over old 
ones with the old ones showing out at the botton for six or eight 
inches in most unsightly fashion, black-boards placed in the 
walls as patches with plastered spaces between, etc., etc., — if 
every law of good taste is broken by the arrangements and 
appointments of the room, the education is no less effective 
than in the former case. It is, however, education to slovenli- 
ness, to contentment with ugly and even insanitary housing con- 
ditions. Such a powerful education influence as one's environ- 
ment can not be counteracted by the mere dosing of students 
with things out of books. The conditions under which one lives, 
are the things that mostly educate one. Book work can only 
bo supplementary. 

We are not here advocating an extravagant outlay of money 
in the construction of new buildings and the condemning of old. 
As a matter of fact, most of the buildings now in use must be 
made to serve for many years to come. The thing we are 
referring to is the making the best of the old buildings. Most 
of them present sufficient dignity from the outside. Very many 
of the school-rooms, however, need to be studied by the art 
department as part of their applied studies in household decora- 
tion and arrangement, and recommendations made for improve- 
ments on the aesthetic side, — matters of line, and form, pro- 
portion, and color. Many of the rooms at the present time in- 
excusably ugly are not so because of any present building neces- 
sity. They are simply so because the principles of household 
decoration and arrangement have not yet filtered through to 
them. It has reached the newer buildings, because experts have 
been set to work, and their ideas have been moulded into the 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 245 

structures. The same kind of ideas need to reach every room in 
the old buildings, even as much as in the new. 

After the planning is done by students and teachers, a large 
portion of the actual work should be done by these same students 
and teachers, by way of putting into effect things that have been 
wrought out in the studies'. Character is shaped chiefly not 
through thinking alone but through putting into effect the re- 
sults of our thinking. The shop classes, the sewing and em- 
broidery classes, students of mechanical drawing, those engaged 
in mattters of color harmony, painting, stenciling, decoration, 
need for educational purposes to embody their ideas into perma- 
nent form. They need to do the work for educational purposes. 
This is not mentioned here merely because it saves money to 
the community. It ought to save community money, will not 
properly be done unless it does ; but the primary purpose of put- 
ting the work as largely as possible into the hands of students 
and teachers, is the educational one. 

In my notes I find reference to scores of minor matters that 
need attention and correction. It is not really the business, how- 
ever, of an outsider to go into these relatively detailed matters. 
Perhaps I have done so to too large an extent as it is. The central 
thing to be recommended here is that the school city get its 
teachers and students to making surveys of the detailed needs, 
drawing up detailed plans as to how each specific thing is to be 
corrected, and finally setting the various manual and art workers 
to the task of making the corrections as far as possible. When 
this is done it is felt that the old buildings can be made attractive 
and sanitary for as long as they have to be used. 



246 CHAPTER XIV. 

Chapter XIV. 

FINANCE. 

The business agent is using the thoroughly modern system 
of financial accounting that is being standardized in the school 
accounting offices throughout the country. No attempt was 
made to examine the accounts in detail. So far as my informa- 
tion goes, there is no reason to call them into question. More- 
over, such an auditing of accounts is a task for an experienced 
expert accountant. 

We wish to call attention to but a single thing : the need of 
having standards of financial expenditure based upon the ex- 
perience of similarly situated cities as the basis of judgment in 
connection with each item of expenditure. 

For example, how much should a city spend annually for 
janitors per class-room? A reply can be found in the experience 
of many cities. Table 17 shows the practice in 19 southern 
cities. A medium amount is $53.00 per class-room. San Antonio 
expends $71.00 per class-room per year. This is $16.00 per room 
greater than required in Dallas ; $22.00 more than in Fort 
Worth ; twice as much as in Atlanta, etc. 



FINANCE _247 

Table XVII. 
Annual Cost of Janitors per School Room. 

St. Joseph _ $ 105.00 

Kansas City ..„ 96.00 

Memphis _ 91.00 

Oklahoma City 71.00 

SAN ANTONIO • 71 .00 



Louisville _ 68.00 

Norfolk _ 63.00 

Houston ;....._ 58.00 

Dallas „..._ 55.00 

■i n inn Mili um im ■ ■ i n mum m ili um — — ■■ mi — i mmm ii hj ■Bwgmjar aa Lja m i um wiii M 

Birmingham _... 53.00 



Richmond „ _ # 52.00 

Fort Worth _ ' 49.00 

New Orleans _ 48.00 

Nashville r _ , 43.00 

Atlanta _ _ „ 35.00 

Savannah _ „ _ 32.00 

Charleston _ 24.00 

Mobile - _ _ 24.00 

Jacksonville. _ _ __ _ „ _ „ _ 21.00 

Such a situation does not prove that San Antonio is spend- 
ing too much. Conditions may be sufficiently different; or 
standards in the quality of the work may be higher. If so, 
these things should be known before the city is satisfied with 
the present situation. 



248 CHAPTER XIV. 

How much should the city expend for instruction supplies 
per pupil? Again it is the general practice of cities that will 
serve as a basis of judgment. The general practice of cities of 
the same population as San Antonio is shown in Table 18. 

Table XVIII. 
Cost of Supplies for Instruction, per Pupil. 



Springfield, Mass $ 2.92 

Spokane 1.81 

Grand Rapids 1.74 

New Bedford _ _ 1.48 

Houston „ 1.41 

Camden . 1.25 

Trenton : 1.11 

Hartford _ 1.04 

Cambridge 91 

Dayton _ 75 

Fall River 74 

Albany 70 

Omaha 70 

Dallas _ : 47 

Lowell _ 43 

SAN ANTONIO _ _ .31 

Bridgeport 31 

Nashville 25 

Fort Worth _ .23 



FINANCE 249 

San Antonio -is expending thirty-one cents per pupil while 
Houston spends $1.41, or four and one-half times as much. 
Dallas is expending fifty percent more. San Antonio is not 
doing well in this aspect of the work. As we have tried to point 
out in the report, it is probably very false economy after ex- 
pending so much to try to economize on the indispensable things 
used by the pupils. 

Often it is anything but economy for the parents. Take, for 
example, the matter of ink. If each pupil buys a bottle per term, 
ten cents per year, the cost to the parents is $1,000 a year. If 
the school city purchased ink crystals and made their own ink 
the same amount of ink would cost about $125.00 a year, — and 
paid ultimately by the same parents. Besides the desks would not 
be littered up with ink bottles tied on their tops with string to 
keep them from being knocked off, with perfectly good patent 
ink-wells in their desks. 

We referred to the need of new buildings in a previous 
chapter. Has San Antonio been spending as much as she ought 
for buildings ? Actual expenditures covering many cities for, let 
us say, the past thirty years, for comparative purposes are. not at 
hand. The figures of the Commissioner of Education are too 
incomplete. We have an index of past expenditures in the pres- 
ent valuation of buildings. Table 19 shows in some degree 
how much San Antonio has been exerting herself as compared 
with other southern cities. She is far behind Dallas, Houston, 
or Fort Worth. When one considers further the number of 
buildings that have been given to the city by Col. Brackenridge, 
in actual effort shown, the city should be placed very much 
lower on the list, — in fact pretty near the bottom. The city 
should remember that it is hard-headed business men behind 
the support given in Houston, Dallas, Galveston, El Paso, and 
Fort Worth, all of which stand high on the list. 



250 CHAPTER XIV. 

Table XIX. 
Present Valuation of Buildings, per Class-room. 

Newport $ 7675.12 

Oklahoma City • _ 6138.31 

Fort Worth 5698.99 

Chattanooga 1 5495.03 

Austin _ 5421.31 

Memphis 5415.61 

Little Rock '. 5000.00 

El Paso : , 4886.57 

Galveston 4789.47 

Dallas _ 4757.98 

Savannah 4695.74 

Charleston _ 3983.36 

Houston 3922.75 

Nashville _ _....„ _ 3729.75 

Louisville „_ 3657.17 

Covington _ 3653.33 

Richmond v _ 3626.33 

Norfolk 3157.57 

SAN ANTONIO 2997.48 

Augusta 2965.26 

Mobile - 2875.00 

New Orleans , 2747.88 

Portsmouth 2738.88 

Tampa _ 2486.86 

Lexington „ 2211.76 

Jacksonville 1876.95 

Macon 1724.24 

Charlotte 1090.68 



FINANCE 251 

In the matter of current operation and maintenance of 
schools, is the city doing its duty? Is it investing in public 
education a sufficient amount per pupil? Table 20 shows that 
the city, as compared with other southern cities is fairly generous 
in the support of the elementary schools. In spending thirty-one 
dollars per pupil, the city stands very near the top of the list. 

Table XX. 
Cost of Elementary Education, per Pupil. 



Kansas City „ , .$ 35.00 

Memphis _ '. 35.00 

New Orleans - 32.00 

Houston _ 32.00 

St. Joseph : : _ ,..- 32.00 

SAN ANTONIO 31.00 

Oklahoma City 1...: „ 30.00 

Louisville _. 28.00 

Little Rock _ _ 28.00 

Nashville 28.00 

Fort Worth „ - - - - 27.00 

Birmingham 25.00 

Richmond - - - - 25.00 

Norfolk ..._ - - 1 24.00 

Atlanta _ _ - ........ 21.00 

Mobile _ -.- - 20.00 

Charleston : : - 20.00 

Savannah „ - 20.00 

Jacksonville - _ 16.00 



252 ; CHAPTER XIV. 

How is it in the case of the high schools? The figures 
given in Table 21 are for the year 1912, as reported in the 
"Financial Statistics of Cities," published by the Census Bureau. 
Relative to what other cities are doing, San Antonio is not 
doing nearly so well by its high schools as it is by its elementary. 

Table XXI. 
Cost of High School, per Pupil. 

Oklahoma City :.$ 108.00 

Charleston - - 91.00 

Kansas City , .,.., 84.00 

New Orleans _ - 81.00 

Louisville : 79.00 

Jacksonville 74.00 

Savannah _ — 71.00 

Atlanta 71.00 

Memphis ^ - 64.00 

St. Joseph 61.00 

Fort Worth 60.00 

Houston _ 56.00 

Richmond 55.00 

SAN ANTONIO _ 53.00 

Birmingham 50.00 

Little Rock 48.00 

Mobile _ m _ 46.00 

Nashville _ 41.00 

Norfolk 31.00 



FINANCE 253 

As compared with cities through the country in general 
of the same population class, how well is San Antonio doing by 
her schools? Table 22 is of the type that can be used with 
profit by the city when considering such a question. The stand- 
ing as shown in the table may be justified ; or it may not be. 
I: needs at least to be explained. \ 

Table XXII. 
Cost of Elementary Education, per Pupil. 

Spokane $ 44.00 

Salt Lake 42.00 

Springfield, Mass 41.00 

Grand Rapids 40.00 

Camden „ 39.00 

Tacoma 38.00 

Albany 38.00 

Trenton 37.00 

Hartford 1 _ 37.00 

Lowell _ 37.00 

Fall River 36.00 

Omaha .' '.. 35.00 

Dayton „ 34.00 

Cambridge „...._ 33.00 

New Bedford 33.00 

SAN ANTONIO - 3 1 .00 

Nashville : 28.00 

Reading, Pa - „ 28.00 

Bridgeport, Conn 24.00 



254 __^ CHAPTER XIV. 

In explaining the relative position of the city in the fore- 
going table, one thing to be examined into is the size of the 
burden of taxation that is being bourne by the city. Are the 
people of San Antonio heavily taxed? Table 23 shows relative' 
burden per capita as compared with southern cities ; and Table 
24 shows the same for cities in general of the same population 
class. 

Table XXIII. 
Total Property Tax per Capita, all Purposes. 

Oklahoma City $ 18.89 

Dallas -.„ L. 16.96 

Kansas City • 16.51 

Houston : ^ _ _ _ 16.10 

Richmond . - 1 1 15.94 

Louisville _ „ _ „ _ 14.77 

New Orleans _...._ _ - _ 14.56 

Ft. Worth „ 13.47 

SAN ANTONIO T _ 13.34 

Norfolk _ 12.56 

Memphis 12.44 

St. Joseph „.. _ _ _.. 11.59 

Atlanta . 11.14 

Savannah - • 10.61 

Nashville „ 10.00 

Jacksonville -. 9.41 

Charleston _ 9.16 

Mobile 6.49 

Birmingham _ 5.83 



FINANCE 255 

The tables show that the city is neither backward nor ad- 
vanced in willingness. to bear a heavy tax burden per capita, — 
but simply average, neither high nor low on the scale. When one 
considers, however, the large proportion of propertyless Mexi- 
cans who make up the population, it is possible that those actu- 
ally paying the taxes should be ranked higher than shown in these 
tables. 

Table XXIV. 
Total Property Tax per Capita, all Purposes. 

Hartford $ 22.48 

Springfield, Mass : 21.33 

Cambridge _ _ _ 19.15 

Dallas „ - - 16.96 

Omaha 16.39 

New Bedford 15.86 

Albany 15.75 

Bridgeport _ - 14.94 

Salt Lake City 13.38 

SAN ANTONIO , 13.34 

Grand Rapids „ _ 13.14 

Fall River _ _ 13.05 

Dayton _ 12.84 

Lowell _ „ _ _ 12.68 

Spokane i _ 12.28 

Trenton 10.21 

Nashville : _ _ „ _ 10.00 

Reading _ 8.30 

Camden _ _ 7.78 



256 CHAPTER XIV. 

Is the city able to distribute the building outlays needed in 
the near future by further bonded debt,? Adding the recent 
bond issues to the previous debt, the city stands relatively about 
as shown in Table 25. The total city debt is not much more 
than half that of Houston ; considerably above that of Dallas ; of 
medium size in fact. 

Table XXV. 
Total (Net) City Debt, per Capita. 

Rank. 

1 . New Orleans $ 121 .00 

2. Houston* : .. 97.23 

3. Norfolk :: .: 93.66 

4. Memphis 1 73.78 

5. Charleston 69.01 

6. Richmond 68.55 

7. Oklahoma .- 67.42 

8. Fort Worth 55.92 

9. Mobile 53.57 

10. SAN ANTONIO 50.17 

11. Nashville 49.55 

12. Louisville 49.30 

13. Savannah 42.94 

14. Dallas 42.88 

15. Birmingham 36.61 

16. Jacksonville 32.04 

17. Kansas City, Mo J 31.32 

18. Atlanta 29.12 

19. St. Joseph 27.98 



LfcFe*1G 



FINANCE 257 

Naturally, with so limited knowledge of the financial situa- 
tion, we are making no recommendations in connection with" these 
things. We wish only to point to the need of objective facts 
relative to current practice as basis of thought in considering 
financial problems. We have presented onlya few sample illustra- 
tive tables merely to show what might be done. The city needs 
such comparative tables in connection with every important 
aspect of financial expenditures. Where a city is • investing 
over half a million dollars annually in public education, the size 
of the outlay is sufficient to warrant the current accumulation 
or the necessary comparative facts. It is a task that should be 
carried through currently under the direction of the business 
agent, the assistant superintendent, and the head of the high 
school commercial department. 



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